Big Companies Tightened Spending as Trade Fears Intensified – Slower business spending could hamper economic growth later in 2019 and in 2020
By Amrith Ramkumar and Theo Francis
Spending on factories, equipment and other capital goods slowed in the first quarter among a broad cross-section of large, U.S.-listed firms, bolstering investor concerns that a key driver of economic growth is fading.
Capital spending rose 3% from a year earlier in the first quarter at 356 S&P 500 companies that had disclosed figures in quarterly regulatory filings through midday May 8, according to an analysis by The Wall Street Journal of data supplied by Calcbench, a provider in New York and Cambridge, Mass.
