Tracking the US Consumer: Electronics Spending Intentions Improve in July

Research evidence excerpt

Tracking the US Consumer: Electronics Spending Intentions Improve in July

Update

August 3, 2026 04:24 AM GMT

Morgan Stanley & Co. LLCMIT Hardware | North America Erik W Woodring

Equity Analyst

Tracking the US Consumer: Erik.Woodring@morganstanley.comRauf Ural +1 212 296-8083

Research Associate

Rauf.Ural@morganstanley.com +1 212 761-5958

Electronics Spending Intentions Maya C Neuman

Maya.Neuman@morganstanley.com +1 212 761-1946

Improve in July Dylan Liu

Dylan.Liu@morganstanley.com +1 212 761-4519

Our July US AlphaWise Consumer survey shows consumer

IT Hardware

sentiment worsened m/m, a reversal from two consecutive North America

months of sentiment improvement, while N6M consumer Industry View Cautious

electronics spending intentions modestly improved. We'd expect

July's weaker sentiment to modestly weigh on future HW

spending intentions.MOur latest US AlphaWise Consumer Survey shows that while consumer

sentiment (a leading indicator for spend) worsened M/M in July, next 6-month

consumer electronics spending intentions slightly improved M/M. Our July 23 -

July 27 AlphaWise US Consumer survey shows that US Consumers became more

negative on the US economy in 2H of July, as sentiment downticked 9 points M/M to

-19%, alongside a 2-point deterioration in N6M household financial sentiment M/M,

with just 22% of respondents expecting an improvement. This marks a reversal from

the two prior months where we saw an improvement in both of these metrics.

Despite the weakening of sentiment, next 6-month consumer electronics spending

intentions slightly improved M/M to -17% (i.e., a shrinking base of consumers

expecting to spend less in N6M), driven by improving intentions in earners with

incomes over $100K.

What does this mean? After two consecutive months of improving consumer