Personal income and spending data: What to know in markets Friday

The spotlight Friday will be on the U.S. economy when the Bureau of Economic Analysis released April personal income and spending data.

Economists surveyed by Bloomberg estimate personal income sank 6.8% in April, down further from a 2% decline in the month prior, and personal spending will likely have plunged 12% during the month from a 7.5% decrease in March.

“More than 20 million people lost their jobs according to the April employment report, which the BEA uses to tabulate wages & salaries, likely leading to a record drop in personal income. That said, compensation from unemployment helped offset some of the decline in March and should do so again in April,” Wells Fargo wrote in a note May 22.

Wells Fargo argued that while personal income declines will be steep in April, personal spending declines will likely be far more dramatic. “With lockdowns only in place for half of March, spending fell a record 7.5%. Last week’s retail sales report gave us a hint of what spending looked like when non-essential businesses were closed for the whole month, and it was not pretty,” the firm said.

Other notable reports on the economic calendar for Friday include Wholesale Inventories month-on-month, April preliminary (-0.8% in March), MNI Chicago PMI, May (40.0 expected, 35.4 in April) and University of Michigan Sentiment, May final (73.7 expected, 73.7 prior).

There are no major earnings announcements scheduled for Friday.

Reprinted from Yahoo Finance, the copyright all reserved by the original author.