What Quarterly Updates Reveal About Consumer Spending

We’re in unstable times. Today’s stock market action, where a morning rally gave way to an afternoon sell-off, was the latest evidence. There’s surely lots of reasons for this volatility, but uncertainty about the economy has to be top of the list.

Some quarterly earnings reports in the past couple of days demonstrated why investors might be uneasy. Disney today sparked alarms among its investors by reporting an unexpected “moderation of consumer demand” at its U.S. theme parks. It said the slowdown emerged late in the June quarter but is expected to continue for the next few quarters. Airbnb made similar comments about its U.S. business on Tuesday night, sending its stock plunging 13% on Wednesday.