US consumer

In December consumer credit grew contributing thus to common optimism about the US recovery. According to the data by the Federal Reserve total credit outstanding increased $6.1 billion which is more than twice the $2.3 billion that Wall Street economists had predicted.

"It's encouraging that lenders are at least allowing credit card spending to go up, but also it's not great that the only way that extra consumption can be financed is through credit cards rather than hiring income," said Paul Ashworth, chief U.S. economist at Capital Economics in Toronto.

As the Christmas passed and the stores are removing their decorations customers are about to put aside their wallets again. The sales boom recorded during Thanksgiving and Christmas season was not a sign of consumer spending resurrection, say analysts and shoppers themselves.

"At this point I refuse to put anything on credit. If I don't have the money, I don't buy it," said Jeff McErlain, a Brooklyn, New York, musician shopping at upscale department store Saks on Manhattan's Fifth Avenue on Wednesday.

A new poll by the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA) revealed that 64% of US consumers have declined online purchases on security concerns.

Providing an explanation to their behavior 60% of Americans said they were not sure if the site was secure, 51.4% were worried about providing information requested, and 48.4% felt a website requested more information than was necessary for the transaction.

According to the latest quarterly FICO survey from the Professional Risk Managers’ International Association (PRMIA) a credit gap for US consumers is obvious.

The gap is evident as lenders anticipate credit availability to fall short of consumer demand through the end of 2010.

According to a survey, released recently by Compete, a Kantar Media company, 83% of consumers shop online at least every week. The quarterly Online Shopper Intelligence Study polled 3,119 online purchasers between May and July 2010.

Study also found these consistent trends:

• Consumers are seeking out retailers on Facebook and Twitter in growing numbers, 31 percent report checking out Facebook fan pages or Twitter feeds of retailers, almost twice as many people as in Q3 2009.

Yra Harris, a veteran trader at Praxis Trading, told CNBC that changes introduced to the US bankruptcy code in 2005 are coming back to haunt banks. He says that banks lobbied hard for changes to the bankruptcy code, but the legislation is now having the effect of encouraging consumers to do all they can to pay down their credit cards, while leaving their mortgage payments on the second place.

In December consumers in the United States borrowed less for an 11th consecutive month. Americans contracted their credit card spending while increased borrowing for cars and other products.

This was taken by analysts as a sign that Americans may soon return to spending, a necessary condition for economic recovery.