{"id":4853,"date":"2025-03-17T13:44:16","date_gmt":"2025-03-17T13:44:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/?p=4853"},"modified":"2025-03-17T13:44:18","modified_gmt":"2025-03-17T13:44:18","slug":"us-shoppers-modestly-increased-spending-last-month-as-concerns-rise-about-economy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/?p=4853","title":{"rendered":"US shoppers modestly increased spending last month as concerns rise about economy"},"content":{"rendered":"<div data-testid=\"prism-headline\">\n<p class=\"jxTEW Poyse uieav lqtkC HkWF HfYhe kGyAC \"><span class=\"gtOSm FbbUW tUtYa vOCwz EQwFq yCufu eEak Qmvg nyTIa SRXVc vzLa jgBfc WXDas CiUCW kqbG zrdEG txGfn ygKVe BbezD UOtxr CVfpq xijV soGRS XgdC sEIlf daWqJ \">US shoppers stepped up their spending a just bit in February after a sharp pullback the previous month, signaling that Americans are shopping more cautiously as concerns about the direction of the economy mount<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"prism-article-body\">\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao MvWXB TjIXL aGjvy ebVHC \"><span class=\"oyrPY qlwaB AGxeB  \">WASHINGTON &#8212; <\/span>US shoppers stepped up their spending a just bit in February after <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/retail-sales-consumer-economy-shopping-53a08a284799497a6eaf79e95a047b0e\">a sharp pullback the previous month<\/a>, signaling that Americans are spending more cautiously as concerns about the direction of the economy mount. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Retail sales rose just 0.2% in February, a small rebound after a sharp drop of 1.2% in January, the Commerce Department said Monday. Sales rose at grocery stores, home and garden stores, and online retailers. Sales fell at auto dealers, restaurants, and electronics stores. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">The small increase suggests Americans may be growing more wary about spending as the stock market has plunged and President Donald Trump&#8217;s tariff threats and government spending cuts have led to widespread uncertainty among consumers and businesses. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">On Friday, a measure of consumer sentiment fell sharply for the third straight month and is now down more than 20% since December. Respondents to the University of Michigan&#8217;s survey cited policy uncertainty as a leading reason for the gloomier outlook. While the respondents were divided sharply by party \u2014 sentiment about the current economy fell among Republican by much less than for Democrats \u2014 Republicans&#8217; confidence in the economy&#8217;s future dropped 10%. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">___<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC eTIW sUzSN \">D&#8217;Innocenzio reported from New York. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>US shoppers stepped up their spending a just bit in February after a sharp pullback the previous month, signaling that Americans are shopping more cautiously as concerns about the direction of the economy mount WASHINGTON &#8212; US shoppers stepped up their spending a just bit in February after a sharp pullback the previous month, signaling [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4854,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4853","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4853","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4853"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4853\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4855,"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4853\/revisions\/4855"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4854"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}