Chicago | Richer Americans are curtailing their spending before Black Friday, a worrisome sign for an economy that has so far depended on the US consumer to stave off a recession.

In the three months before the all-important holiday shopping season, a group of retailers that caters to the upper middle class – including Apple, Coach and Nordstrom – had its biggest sales drop in two years, according to an exclusive analysis of Bloomberg Second Measure data, which is based on debit/credit card transactions from US consumers. The malaise also hit top-performing malls in wealthier areas, even as overall retail-sales figures march higher.

Bloomberg