Consumer spending in trouble

Yesterday, the Conference Board in the US reported that its consumer confidence index for September fell to 96.8 from a revised 98.7 last month. The Conference Board's present situation index fell to 95.5 from 100.7 in August while the expectations index was virtually unchanged at 97.6 compared with 97.3 last month.

In Japan, the government reported that retail sales fell 1.8 percent in August compared with the same month a year earlier, slightly weaker than a 1.4 percent drop forecast by economists in a Reuters poll. Compared with July, retail sales fell 0.1 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) said.

It looks like the world economy will not be getting much of a boost from consumer spending in the two largest economies.