US consumer spending rebounds in May

US consumers boosted spending in May after a slowdown the previous month as personal income grew far more than expected.

Consumer spending - the engine of the US economy - rose 0.3 per cent, led by purchases of manufactured durable goods, the Commerce Department said on Thursday.

The May gain followed a 0.3 per cent decline in April. Analysts had forecast a stronger 0.4 per cent rebound.

Personal income jumped 0.5 per cent last month, well above the 0.2 per cent estimate, in the fourth consecutive month of gains.

Year-over-year, consumer spending was up 1.8 per cent and personal income gained 1.1 per cent.

Inflation remained tame. The personal consumption expenditures price index edged up 0.1 per cent in May, after falling 0.3 per cent in April.

The core PCE price index, excluding food and energy, also was up 0.1 per cent, barely changed from a nearly flat reading in the prior month.

The year-over-year core reading, closely watched by the Federal Reserve, was up only 1.1 per cent.

"Core PCE inflation remains well below the Fed's 2.5 per cent 'threshold' for raising the funds rate, although it did not slow any more this month," said Jim O'Sullivan of High Frequency Economics.

Americans boosted their savings in May, pushing the personal savings rate up two-tenths point to 3.2 per cent.

Jennifer Lee of BMO Capital Markets noted there were downward revisions on consumer spending to a few prior months.

"Second-quarter consumer spending is coming in at just 1.2 per cent annualised, the slowest since mid-2011. This is very disappointing, and comes even as incomes pick up," she said.

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Sydney men charged over ecstasy supply

THREE men have been charged after a long-running police investigation into commercial drug supply in Sydney's east and south.

Strike Force Shear, which was formed last year to investigate the supply of ecstasy, raided several properties in Parramatta, Hurstville Grove and Bexley on Thursday.

A 26-year-old man was charged with numerous drug offences after the Parramatta raid.

He was refused bail when he appeared in Parramatta Local Court.

Officers arrested a 22-year-old man at the house in Hurstville Grove and charged him with two counts of supply commercial quantity of ecstasy.

He was refused bail and is scheduled to appear in Sutherland Local Court on Friday.

At the unit in Bexley, police arrested a 23-year-old and charged him with several drug offences.

He was refused bail to appear in Kogarah Local Court on Friday.

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Chase speaking at Gandolfini's funeral

MOURNERS have gathered for the funeral of US actor James Gandolfini.

The creator of The Sopranos, David Chase, is one of four people scheduled to speak during the ceremony at the Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine in New York. The others are his widow, Deborah Lin Gandolfini, and two family friends.

The 51-year-old actor best known for his role as mob boss Tony Soprano in the HBO series died of a heart attack last week while on holiday with his son in Italy.

Invited guests began gathering early for the morning funeral. Dick Cavett chatted with actor Steve Buscemi near the front of the church. Aida Turturro, who played Gandolfini's sister in The Sopranos, was one of the first from that show's large cast to arrive.

Some 1500 seats had been set up. The public was to be allowed in after the invited guests.

A private family wake was held for the actor on Wednesday in New Jersey.

Broadway theatres paid tribute by dimming their lights briefly on Wednesday night. Gandolfini was nominated for a Tony Award in 2009 as an actor in God of Carnage.

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Obama seeks to calm Snowden tension

US President Barack Obama has sought to calm tensions surrounding fugitive intelligence leaker Edward Snowden's stay in a Moscow airport.

Signs are also growing that Snowden doesn't possess documents allowing him to travel further.

Snowden, who is wanted by the US authorities for leaking sensational details of US surveillance to the media, is said by the Kremlin to have been in the transit zone of Sheremetyevo airport since arriving on a flight from Hong Kong on Sunday.

But in a mystery that has captivated the world, there has not been a single sighting of Snowden at the airport and his onward travel plans remain an enigma after he failed to board a flight on which he was booked to Havana on Monday.

The episode risks further ratcheting up tensions between Washington and Moscow, as well as Beijing, which are already strained by the conflict in Syria.

But Obama insisted the United States - which has revoked Snowden's passport - would not scramble jets to intercept him should he fly from Russia.

"I am not going to be scrambling jets to get a 29-year-old hacker," Obama said on a visit to Senegal, oddly giving the wrong age for the 30-year-old former National Security Agency (NSA) technician.

Obama also said he had not called the President Xi Jinping of China or Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss the issue.

Putin has indicated that Moscow is keen to see the back of its unexpected visitor, while also strongly rejecting US pressure to hand over Snowden as the two countries have no extradition treaty.

"The sooner this (he flies onwards from Moscow) happens, the better," said Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

Ecuador, whose embassy in London is already giving refuge to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange as he faces extradition to Sweden on allegations of sexual assault, has said it is considering an asylum request from Snowden.

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Italy has hit bottom, but 'recovery looms'

ITALY'S business association says the eurozone's third largest economy has "hit bottom" and is on the slow path to growth.

However, it sharply revised its gross domestic product forecast.

Confindustria said in a report that gross domestic product would shrink 1.9 per cent in 2013, compared to a previous forecast of a 1.1 per cent decline.

It said Italy would begin recovering in the last quarter of 2013 and see a return to growth in 2014, but warned progress would be "very slow" and cut the growth estimate for next year from 0.6 per cent to 0.5 per cent.

While it said indicators such as figures for car sales and family confidence suggest "we have hit bottom," Confindustria ratched up its 2013 debt to GDP ratio forecast from 126.4 per cent to 131.7 per cent and suggested it would rise to 132.4 per cent in 2014.

There was glum news on the public deficit front as well, with the business lobby saying Italy's deficit would rise from 1.9 per cent to 3.0 per cent in 2013, hitting the European Union recommended ceiling.

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US stocks rise for third straight day

US stocks have pushed higher for a third day as bond yields fell again on easing worries that the Federal Reserve will soon cut back its stimulus program.

Stocks opened higher on Thursday, also helped by moderately positive economic data.

They gained support from comments by New York Fed chief William Dudley stressing that the central bank will not shut down its $US85 billion ($A92 billion) a month asset-purchase program - aimed at holding interest rates down - "if labour market conditions and the economy's growth momentum were to be less favourable" than the Fed currently predicts.

At 11am (0100 AEST), the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 149.56 (1.00 per cent) at 15,059.70.

The broad-based S&P 500 added 14.63 (0.91 per cent) at 1,617.89, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite increased 32.57 (0.96 per cent) to 3,408.79.

The indexes extended two days of gains as the market bounces back from last week's steep declines.

Data releases suggested US economic growth remains at a moderate pace: consumer spending rebounded in May from April's fall, incomes were higher, inflation pressures remain low, new jobless claims were slightly improved, and pending home sales were strong.

"This morning's economic data are more supportive of the view that the Fed can hold off on tapering than not," said Patrick O'Hare of Briefing.com.

Bond prices jumped for a second day. The yield on the 10-year US Treasury fell to 2.50 per cent from 2.54 per cent late Wednesday, while the 30-year fell to 3.52 per cent from 3.57 per cent. Bond prices move inversely to yields.

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