Daniel Ackerman

Stop me if you've heard this one before.

Randy Kroszner at the University of Chicago says today's report suggests that resilience has continued, at least through February.

Vehicle sales, for one, rose in February, but the uptick in spending was largely a product of higher prices, not household financial strength, says Tuan Nguyen, an economist with RSM.

The short story is consumers are starting to feel the squeeze.

Personal savings were down in February as disposable income fell, though Nguyen says that could be a blip.

Some of that was just the weather.

February was cold and stormy for the East Coast, which may have hurt hiring.

Nguyen says there could be a bounce back in March.

And speaking of the labor market...

Sean Snaith at the University of Central Florida says that's a key indicator.

But even if consumers are able to keep their jobs, those paychecks may not go as far in the months ahead.

Nancy Vandenhouten with Oxford Economics reminds us that today's PCE report covers the month just before the war in Iran.

She says those price increases will pop up in the March Consumer Price Index, which comes out tomorrow morning.

I'm Daniel Ackerman for Marketplace.

After each one, people are starting to think maybe this is just normal.

This is how it is.

And I think that is part of what they're waiting on.

But they're definitely concerned that people are starting to assume that there's another shot coming.

I think that's what I have learned over the last few years, is that people see higher prices, but their long run still seems to be relatively stable.

I have interpreted that as the Federal Reserve has done a really good job ensuring people that they take this very seriously.