US Consumers Stretching Their Dollars: CNBC/NRF

The monthly growth rate for total consumer spending in the U.S. was the lowest since November 2025, an indication that higher prices are making shoppers more cautious, the latest CNBC/NRF Retail Monitor shows. A strong Halloween season and an early start to holiday promotions kept the figure from being even lower, the NRF said.

“Households are managing budgets carefully, timing purchases around special offers and sales events in order to stretch their dollars,” said NRF CEO Matthew Shay. “Retailers continue to offer promotions and value pricing to keep everyday items and holiday gifts affordable.”

Spending rose in nine of 11 sectors year over year, led by the electronics and appliances category, with a 9.3% increase in the 12-month period. Technology companies have hiked prices for products ranging from MacBooks to Xboxes in the face of surging memory chip costs amid the artificial intelligence boom.

However, furniture and home furnishings sales dropped by 0.2% in October, likely hurt by the housing market’s lethargy due to higher mortgage rates. Spending on a basket of leisure items including sporting goods, music and bookstores pulled back by 0.4% on the year, despite ticking higher from September to October.

The CNBC/NRF data offers the latest signals of how higher-than-usual inflation and rising prices are impacting U.S. consumers, CNBC’s report on the monitor’s results notes. Other signs:

• The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on Tuesday that its consumer price index increased 0.4% in October, a slightly higher month-over-month growth rate than economists forecast.
• A National Federation of Independent Business survey revealed on Tuesday that a net 37% of businesses planned to hike prices in the next three months, the highest since July 2022, when the U.S. economy was dealing with energy price shocks due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
• Inflation and the cost of living were key issues for voters in the recent midterm election, which resulted in one of the largest shifts of U.S. political power in recent history.

CNBC/NRF noted that they recently expanded the monitor to include around 120 million debt and credit cards, making it one of the largest sources of such card spending in the country. The data comes from Affinity Solutions.