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AI-related investment, consumers likely boosted US economic growth in third quarter

WASHINGTON, Oct 29 (Reuters) - US economic growth likely accelerated in the third quarter as resilient consumer spending and AI-driven business investment more than offset the impact of higher oil prices stemming from the conflict in the Middle East. "People are very upset about high energy and food prices, and yet the fundamentals for consumers are still decent," said Gus Faucher, chief economist at PNC Financial. "We still have job growth, wage gains and there's the strong stock market that's supporting spending by high-income households, in particular, so consumers continue to increase their spending at a pretty steady clip." Economists estimated the trade shortfall subtracted at least 4 percentage points from GDP growth last quarter. But the drag was probably blunted by the AI-related investment, with business spending on equipment expected to have notched a third straight quarter…