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U.S. consumer debt rose less than estimated in June as revolving debt outstanding fell for the second time in four months, Federal Reserve figures showed yesterday, Bloomberg News reported. The drop in revolving debt, which includes credit cards, signals consumers took a breather after such borrowing in May jumped by the most in six months. Meanwhile, non-revolving debt, which includes loans for education and automobiles, remained robust, in part reflecting healthy demand for vehicles. The Fed’s consumer credit report doesn’t track debt secured by real estate, such as home equity lines of credit and home mortgages. The results are consistent with second-quarter data that showed household spending rebounded to the fastest pace of growth since 2014, after a weak start to the year.

Sen. Marco Rubio says that going on leave from work to care for a family member should not be a "bankruptcy-inducing event," as many workers across the country are forced to choose between taking a paycheck or spending time with their newborn children, CBSNews.com reported. Rubio, along with Rep. Ann Wagner (R-Missouri), plans to introduce the Economic Security for New Parents Act in the Senate to help parents get two months of paid leave, offset by funds from their future Social Security benefits. It would be the first new leave option for families since the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) of 1993. That law ensures 12 weeks of unpaid leave for those seeking to care for a family member. Under Rubio's bill, employees would then delay taking their Social Security benefit for three to six months when they reach retirement age. 

U.S. households’ incomes are rising in pace with robust spending, an indication that consumers have the capacity to drive gains in economic output, the Wall Street Journal reported. Personal-consumption expenditures, a measure of household spending on everything from hospital stays to groceries, increased a seasonally adjusted 0.4 percent in June from May, the Commerce Department said yesterday. Matching that gain, personal income — reflecting Americans’ pretax earnings from salaries and other sources, including investments — also rose 0.4 percent. Those increases helped propel overall economic output to a 4.1 percent annual growth rate in the second quarter, the Commerce Department said last week. It was the strongest growth since 2014. Read more. (Subscription required.) 

Make sure to check out yesterday's ABI Chart of the Day. 

The Trump administration’s tariffs have pushed up the prices of steel and aluminum and have raised costs for companies that make everything from cars and tractors to dishwashers, according to a New York Times commentary. These companies face a choice: They can bear the higher costs themselves and report weaker profits, which might crater their stocks. Or they can charge more for their products, in effect making their customers bear much of the financial burden of the tariffs, at least for a while. Many companies are opting for the latter, according to the commentary. The tariffs are raising expenses at a time when companies are paying more for other materials and labor. If most of these costs are passed on to consumers, inflation, already rising after being dormant for years, could accelerate. What is more, since the metals tariffs have been in effect only since the start of June, their full impact has not been felt, according to the commentary.

Consumers are starting to see higher prices for recreational vehicles, soda, beer and other goods that now cost more to make as a result of recent tariffs on metals and parts, the Wall Street Journal reported. Many manufacturers in recent days, including Coca-Cola Co. and Polaris Industries Inc., have said that they plan to raise prices. U.S. steel and aluminum prices are up 33 percent and 11 percent, respectively, since the start of the year, as producers and their customers begin to price in the tariffs that the Trump administration first applied on foreign-made metal in March. Tariffs on a host of additional imported products from China this month have added costs for companies that use those components to assemble their products in the U.S.