The economy according to McDonald's

<p>McDonald's reported earnings today and shares are trading close to flat.</p><p>Here are some comments from the company:</p><ul><li>Overall had a slight dip in traffic in Q3</li><li>Traffic from low-income consumer was negative across industry but McDonald's continued to have traffic growth</li><li>Pricing level has started to come down in terms of the rate of increase</li><li>Average pricing level in the US business for the full year will be just over 10%</li><li>Seeing no change at all in terms of customer acceptance on pricing</li><li>There is a step-up in promotion by some competitors but nothing alarming on that</li><li>We continue to grow share across markets despite the cost of living pressures</li><li>Top line growth continued to moderate</li><li>Sees 'challenging macro environment'</li></ul><p>The comments from McDonald's mostly underline what markets have already figured out. The low-income customer is starting to struggle but overall spending is holding up. Now some of that might be that McDonald's <a href="https://www.forexlive.com/news/mcdonalds-winning-the-fast-food-wars-is-one-of-the-great-accomplishments-in-capitalism-20230718/" target="_blank" rel="follow">has won</a> the fast food wars, in one of the all-time great achievements of capitalism but there is no sudden stop in consumer spending, even with rates high.</p><p>The one comment that should worry the Fed is that — despite big jumps in pricing — McDonald's noted little consumer push back. Fast food is visibly more expensive now and McDonald's' competitors are competing on price and promotions but it's not stopping the spending. That's a strong economy, though it is slowing.</p><p>Overall, what McDonald's is talking about sounds exactly like a soft landing.</p>

This article was written by Adam Button at www.forexlive.com.