Economy: In Consumers We Trust 2012 II

The gas prices are marching to record highs, but the U.S. consumers stay still in spending mood. "Retailers from discounter Target to department-store chain Macy's reported better-than-expected sales in March", writes Associated Press (finance.yahoo). "Excluding pharmacies, companies that reported their results said sales grew 6.8% at stores open more than a year, well above the monthly same-store gains of 3% to 5% recorded throughout 2011” reports Barron´s (blogs.barrons.com).

The strong retail numbers are encouraging, because they are an important part of the consumer spending, which accounts for more than 70 percent of all U.S. economic activity. It looks like that the healing job market, in spite of the disappointing employment report from yesterday, and the rally on the stock markets are counterbalancing the negative impulse of the high energy prices.

As long as the consumer  spending, the engine of the economy, is still running smoothly, the U.S. economy will continue the upswing. This is also good news for the rest of world because rising U.S. consumer spending translates in climbing exports for companies in Europe, Asia and Latin America.