Consumer Spending Picks Up

The latest snapshot of consumer and business activity was contained in a pair of reports released by the Commerce Department on Friday. CNBC's "Squawk Box" team sifted through the data and Anthony Chan, Chief Economist at JP Morgan Private Client had the instant analysis.

Today's economic numbers showed consumers increasing their spending by 0.5 percent last month, up from a 0.3 percent gain and the most since July. Incomes rose a modest 0.3 percent for the second month in a row. The income and spending figures aren't adjusted for inflation.

Another report showed that orders placed with factories for costly manufactured goods went up 1.9 percent last month. That was a turnaround from the 8.2 percent plunge registered in October.

Anthony Chan, Chief Economist at JP Morgan Private Client said "We've been getting a lot of news that the manufacturing sector is slowing. One of the things I look at, is the new orders versus the inventories. That has narrowed so much; it's at it's narrowest since April 2003..

The encouraging aspect of the report is; although the economy is slowing - we're getting reduced price pressures which should make for a happy Fed.

By the middle of next year I think we'll be talking about how low will the Fed go. This is an economy that will benefit reduced price pressures.