Despite healthy income gains, consumer spending increased only slightly in November and many retailers are expressing disappointment with the holiday shopping season. Consumer spending rose 0.4 percent in November to $5.59 trillion at a seasonally adjusted annual rate, the Commerce Department said Wednesday. That was down from a 0.5 percent gain a month earlier and below analysts’ expectations of another 0.5 percent increase in November. At the same time, personal incomes increased 0.8 percent to a $7.03 trillion rate, up from $6.97 trillion in October, when they advanced 0.6 percent. It was the biggest increase since a 1 percent gain in June 1996. The data had little effect on Wall Street, where traders’ attention was focused on Asian financial turmoil.
