Data released on Friday showed that consumer spending in the United States rebounded last month, after falling in February.
The report from the Commerce Department showed that spending rose by 4.2% in March, a slight increase from the 4.1% expected.
Today’s rise comes after spending fell by 1.0% in February, as consumers continued to be nervous due to the pandemic.
Since February however, a vast number of Americans have received the COVID-19 vaccine, and a historic $1.2 trillion stimulus package bill was passed.
As a result, many in the U.S. received a one-off payment of $1,400 to aid them during the health crisis.
Despite this, all major indices in the U.S. were down on Friday.
Related: U.S Consumer Confidence reaches pre pandemic levels
Contents
Amazon Sales up 44% as earnings beat expectations
Amazon shares were up on Friday, as the company reported better than expected earnings for the first quarter of the year.
The earnings call which came after yesterday’s closing bell was the penultimate in Jeff Bezos’s stint as CEO, who will be leaving his post this quarter.
Overall sales for the group rose by 44%, with earnings per share coming in at $15.79 vs. $9.54 expected. Revenue for the company founded by Bezos also grew, hitting $108.52 billion against expectation of $104.47 billion.
As of writing $AMZN was up just 0.08%, after trading as much as 3% higher earlier in today’s session.
The FTSE 100 ended the week in the green, despite shares in one of Britain’s biggest banks selling off.
Barclays reported that net income had risen to £1.7 billion, better than the £1.3 billion expected by analysts.
Despite this however, shares in the company were down by as much as 7% today, as operating expenses rose.
The company reported that expenses hit £3.5 billion, up from £3.3 billion a year ago, as the cost of doing business during the pandemic impacted the firm.
Jes Staley, who is the CEO of Barclays stated that, “While evidence of recovery is encouraging, we have continued to take a cautious view of the impact of the pandemic on the business. We remain disciplined on costs, with a cost to income ratio of 61% this quarter”.
Quote of the day – “Never invest in any idea you can’t illustrate with a crayon.”
– Peter Lynch