US September Personal Income Rises 0.2%, Below 0.3% Forecast

A softer-than-expected income print reinforces the picture of a household sector that isn't accelerating, which matters for anyone pricing the Fed's next move. The miss is modest and the prior reading held steady, so this reads more as a marginal data point than a regime shift. Whether income growth keeps cooling in the coming releases is the open question, since that trajectory, not this single month, is what would carry weight for policy expectations.