At Long Last, Consumer Confidence Is Rising

While President Joe Biden's handling of the economy proved to be a stubborn point of tension with consumers in 2023, year's end brought reason for optimism moving forward.

Ideally, voters would really start to feel the positive impacts of falling prices, record-high stock surges, and continued job/wage gains by late spring/early summer. That's right around the time voters' views of the upcoming presidential contest start to take shape.

1) Prices fell in November for the first time since 2020

This comes according to The Wall Street Journal. At the same time, spending and personal income rose.

But perhaps most importantly, core inflation eased to 1.9% on a six-month annualized basis—a sweet spot for the Fed.

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