Benchmark
Why One Wall Street Analyst Thinks You'll Start Spending More
A credit survey portends a pickup
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After a few middling months, U.S. consumer spending is poised for a pickup, according to one Wall Street analyst.
The chart below tracks the relationship between the amount of credit extended to businesses by their suppliers — as measured by the National Association of Credit Management — and the Commerce Department's retail sales gauge excluding food, autos and gas stations. As access to credit increases, retail sales tend to pick up, according to Dan Binder, an equity research analyst at Jefferies & Co. in New York.