US improvement slowing, Canada declines sharply
From Bank of America -- Entertainment leading continued improvement but middle-income spending appearing to slow.
From JPMorgan - August spending overall holding up but little improvement in discretionary spending.
TD Securities on Canadian spending - Surprise drop in home furnishings, professional services and financial services. Clothing spending slows.
This is counter-intuitive because it's the US government that cut benefits in August. There was some pent-up demand coming out of the lockdown but that may have disappeared and back-to-school clothing demand is likely lower.
Overall, this is a completely mixed picture. At best there's a slowdown in the improvement, at worst there's a real slowdown in spending on discretionary items.
