U.S. Economy Resilience Due To Consumer Spending: Dow Jones

The US economy remained remarkably resilient this year largely due to the strength of consumer spending, Callum Keown reported for Barron’s Daily.

Investors can now spend the long holiday weekend toasting their annual gains and celebrating the new year.

As a result, the consumer discretionary sector is also on pace for its best-ever year, according to Dow Jones Market Data, climbing 42%.

Cruise stocks Royal Caribbean and Carnival are both in the S&P 500’s top 10 best performers, highlighting the strong demand for travel this year among Americans. Both companies and rival Norwegian Cruise Line have had record gains this year.

It’s also the best year in history for shares of Meta, Broadcom, General Electric, Airbnb, and Dow Inc.

Investors can now spend the long holiday weekend toasting their annual gains and celebrating the new year. But the rest will be brief as next week brings the minutes from the Fed’s recent meeting and a raft of employment data, culminating in December’s jobs report.

The labor market needs to keep cooling if 2023’s year-end gains are to survive the early part of 2024.

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