![](\"https:\/\/www.financialmirror.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/oanda-marketpulse-craig-us-inflation-gdp-fed-rate.jpg\")
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By Craig Erlam\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Inflation, income and spending data for the US was released on Friday and broadly speaking the numbers were in line with expectations, with one outlier.<\/p>\n Spending last month increased 0.7%, comfortably exceeding the 0.5% that was expected. It also came on top of the upward revision to the November reading, which increased to 0.4% from 0.2% previously.<\/p>\n All things considered, it\u2019s another sign that the US consumer and economy are in very healthy shape going into the new year.<\/p>\n That it was released alongside inflation data \u2013 the Fed\u2019s preferred PCE reading \u2013 will be additionally comforting for investors, as it suggests it\u2019s not coming at the expense of inflationary pressures heating up again.<\/p>\n They\u2019re now running at a rate much more consistent with the Fed\u2019s 2% target, especially over the last few months. A March rate cut still looks like a very real possibility.<\/p>\n Oil prices were trading flat on Friday after hitting a two-month high a day earlier.<\/p>\n The move back above $80 in Brent crude which had been a struggle over the last month or so could be viewed as a big psychological move, particularly amid the risks in the Middle East and better economic figures from the US.<\/p>\n That said, prices are still not high and certainly not high enough to stoke inflationary concerns at this stage.<\/p>\n Gold prices were slightly lower on the last day of the week, but still comfortably above $2,000 where it has held, even as doubts surfaced on the scale of easing this year.<\/p>\n Friday\u2019s data in theory aids the case for cutting rates in March and much more this year, but prices are steady with spending figures perhaps preventing people getting carried away.<\/p>\n \u200b<\/p>\n Craig Erlam is Senior Market Analyst, UK & EMEA at OANDA<\/p>\n Opinions are the author\u2019s, not necessarily that of OANDA Global Corporation or any of its affiliates, subsidiaries, officers or directors. Leveraged trading is high risk and not suitable for all. Losses can exceed investments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The US inflation, income, and spending data released on Friday were generally in line with expectations. Spending increased by 0.7%, surpassing the expected 0.5%. This suggests that the US consumer and economy are in good shape. The inflation data released alongside the spending data indicates that inflationary pressures are not increasing significantly. Oil prices remained flat after reaching a two-month high, and gold prices remained above ,000. The data supports the case for rate cuts in March, but steady prices prevent excessive optimism.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":2530,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"Default","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[359,49,26,372,52,53,67,54,34,69,55,375,618,494,380,57,602,651,18],"class_list":["post-2529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cyprus","tag-brent","tag-crude-oil","tag-economy","tag-fed-rates","tag-federal-reserve","tag-gold","tag-inflation","tag-marketpulse","tag-markets","tag-middle-east","tag-oanda","tag-rate-cut","tag-top","tag-uk","tag-us","tag-us-fed","tag-us-gdp","tag-us-inflation","tag-world"],"acf":{"keyphrase":"","keywords":"","sourceimg":"","country-category":""},"yoast_head":"\nOil steadies after 2-month high<\/h4>\n
Gold still above $2,000<\/h4>\n