Inflation, Savings, & More

Week in Review: May 27-31

In an otherwise quiet week with no particularly important news, we got updates on consumer confidence, home sales, inflation, and a lot more.

Monday

MEMORIAL DAY—TSA Checkpoint Travel Numbers

TSA screened a record 2.9 million passengers on Friday, May 24, as Americans traveled in droves for Memorial Day—a strong indication that the U.S. consumer is doing just fine.

Tuesday

Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index

Consumer sentiment improved in May after falling in each of the previous three months. Despite the uptick, consumers are still pretty downbeat. The forward-looking component remained below 80 for the fourth straight month, a level that’s supposed to signal imminent recession (it’s been below 80 for most of the past few years though and…still no recession).

Home Prices

The S&P Corelogic Case-Shiller National Home Price Index (it’s a terrible name but a pretty good measure) shows that home prices increased 1.3% in March and are up 6.5% year over year. They also have data for 20 metro areas, if you care about that.

Gas Prices

Gas prices fell for the fifth straight week, and the average is now below $3.70/gallon for the first time since early April.

Diesel Prices

Diesel prices fell again and are now at the lowest level since January 2022.  

Wednesday

Mortgage Applications