Douglas Porter Quotations
-
Backup Quotes
While it's a bit of a surprise, the slightly downbeat news on confidence can be explained by the ongoing weakness in employment, and perhaps consumers are a little concerned about the backup in mortgage rates. But while they're becoming less confident, they're still buying -- the latest sales numbers still look good.
-
Current Quotes
The thing about the quarterly figures is they're more driven by what took place at the end of the previous quarter and the start of the current quarter than what happened at end of the current quarter. These numbers tell us spending had a little more momentum heading into 2003 than the quarterly figures would indicate.