Yahoo Finance, Released on 5/22/24

Target (TGT) released its first quarter report, revealing a drop in comparable sales year over year, adding to growing signs that cracks in consumers’ resilience are beginning to form. Is this a signal that the economy is beginning to slow? Founder and president of Rosenberg Research David Rosenberg joins Morning Brief to discuss the recent shift in consumer behavior and how the economy’s movements may affect the Federal Reserve’s future policy decisions. “The data aren’t supporting that we’re in a recession dot, dot, dot just yet. And as for the consumer, it’s not contracting. However, you’re seeing a major shift in behavior, much more toward frugality. You’re seeing that in terms of trading down, you’re seeing that in terms of what the retailers are saying in terms of how the consumption patterns are shifting towards staples and essentials and away from big-ticket discretionary items,” Rosenberg tells Yahoo Finance. He also notes that consumers are spending less at restaurants, an “early warning sign” of a “fundamental” shift in behavior. The change may seem trivial, but Rosenberg says it’s “actually something that we should be keeping our eyes on.”

David Rosenberg is the chief economist & strategist of Rosenberg Research & Associates, an economic consulting firm he established in January 2020. He received both a Bachelor of Arts and Masters of Arts degree in economics from the University of Toronto. Prior to starting his firm, he was Gluskin Sheff’s chief economist & strategist. Mr. Rosenberg was also chief North American economist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch in New York and prior thereto, he was a senior economist at BMO Nesbitt Burns and Bank of Nova Scotia. Mr. Rosenberg previously ranked first in economics in the Brendan Wood International Survey for Canada for seven straight years, was on the US Institutional Investor All American All Star Team for four years, and was ranked second overall in the 2008 survey.

  david rosenberg, economy, recession