If you got it: Americans increased their spending in September at twice the rate that their income grew, a sign of confidence in the economy. Still, consumers made up the difference by saving less for a third straight month, a troubling trend. The Commerce Department reports this morning that consumer spending increased 0.8% in September from August. That followed a 0.5% gain in August and was the best showing since February. Personal income rose 0.4%, an improvement from a slight 0.1% gain in August and the best gain since March. However, after adjusting for inflation and taxes, income was flat in September. More details are available in the full story here.
Shuttered: U.S. stock markets are closed today as Hurricane Sandy nears the East Coast and are likely to remain closed Tuesday. The last time the New York Stock Exchange had an unplanned closing was in September 2001, in reaction to the terrorist attacks Sept. 11. Duncan Niederauer, the chief executive of the exchange’s parent company, NYSE Euronext, tells CNBC it is “hard to imagine” that the exchange will open Tuesday. A spokesman for the exchange says an official announcement will be made later today.
Say what? Microsoft bills Windows 8 as a “re-imagining” of the personal computer market’s dominant operating system, but the company still has a lot of work to do before the makeover captures the imagination of most consumers, based on the results of a recent poll by The Associated Press and GfK. The phone survey of nearly 1,200 adults in the United States found 52% hadn’t even heard of Windows 8 leading up to Friday’s release of the redesigned software. Among the people who knew something about the new operating system, 61% had little or no interest in buying a new laptop or desktop computer running on Windows 8, according to the poll. And only about a third of respondents, 35%, who’d heard about the new system believe it will be an improvement. The full story is available here.
Today’s poll question: How interested are you in running Windows 8 on a new laptop or desktop computer?
