U.S. consumer spending barely rose in November, while annual inflation increased at its slowest pace in 13 months, but demand is probably not cooling fast enough to discourage the Federal Reserve from driving interest rates to higher levels next year.

New home sales were up in November from the month before, even as prices remained elevated and buyers faced some of the highest mortgage rates of the year.  Sales of newly constructed homes rose 5.8% in November from October, but were down 15.3% from a year ago, according to the US Census Bureau. This is the second consecutive month of sales increases. Meanwhile, the median price for a new home dropped to $471,200, down from $493,000 the previous month. But it was still higher than the median price a year ago, which was $430,000.

Orders for manufactured goods sank 2.1% in November in another sign of slackening demand in the U.S. economy as the year winds down.  Fewer contracts for commercial jets explained most of the weakness last month. But orders minus transportation and a key measure of business investment posted just very small increases.  Orders rise in an expanding economy and shrink when growth weakens. A variety of measures point to waning demand for goods due to a more fragile economy and a shift in consumer spending toward services such as travel and recreation.