Donna Goodrich

Personal spending increased 0.1% in November from the prior month, the Commerce Department said Friday, compared with an upwardly revised 0.9% increase in October. Households boosted spending on services last month while cutting spending on goods, including autos. The personal-consumption expenditures price index—the Fed’s preferred gauge of inflation—rose 5.5% in November from a year earlier, a significant cooling from 6.1% in October. The core PCE-price index, which removes volatile…

A November report will gauge the health of consumer spending and other household finances as a year of high inflation and rising interest rates draws to a close.The Commerce Department will release spending, income, saving and inflation figures at 8:30 a.m. ET on Friday. The report will offer a picture of how consumers did in November as the holiday season got under way, including spending on services such as travel and medical care. “You have weakness in goods demand, but all the services sectors still look pretty good,”…