U.S. stocks declined on Friday, thereby extending losses for a third consecutive week. The S&P 500 and Dow Jones Composite Index both lost 0.5%, while Nasdaq Composite declined by 0.9%.
This comes after the PCE core price index, which is the Fed’s preferred inflation measure, gained 5.5% on an annual basis during the month of November while core PCE, which excludes food and energy components, gained 4.7%. As PCE rose, personal spending plummeted to its lowest level since July.
“The Federal Reserve’s preferred measure of inflation continues to go down, which is good news for their most important objective, but unfortunately for the market, it is happening at the same time as consumers continue to reduce their spending,” Independent Advisor Alliance Chief Investment Officer Chris Zaccarelli commented.
According to Zaccarelli, lower spending that has resulted from the Federal Reserve’s approach to curbing inflation is bad for the stock market as it is indicative of lower earnings.
Following the Federal Reserve’s final policy decision of 2023, analysts projected revised their core PCE expectations, raising previous projections of 3.1% to 3.5%. In order to continue suppressing inflation, the Federal Reserve is expected to keep rates high during 2023.