National consumer sentiment fell slightly this month due to high costs of living in a closely watched survey by researchers at the University of Michigan, despite signs that inflation is coming down.

Preliminary numbers based on several criteria gauging sentiments on household finances and the larger economy showed October’s consumer sentiment index at 68.9, down from 70.1 in September, the highest level recorded since May.

“Consumers continue to express frustration over high prices,” Joanne Hsu, the university’s director of consumer surveys, said in a statement. “Still, long-run business conditions lifted to the highest reading in six months, while current and expected personal finances both softened slightly.”

Some consumers appear to be withholding judgment about the trajectory of the economy as they wait for the outcome of the national presidential election next month, Hsu said.

Despite the slight decline this month, sentiment remains 8% higher than a year ago — and nearly 40% above the low point recorded in June 2022, when inflation peaked at just over 9%.

This month's dip in confidence comes as U.S. producer prices were unchanged in September as a small rise in the cost of services was offset by cheaper goods, pointing to a continued cooling of inflation, according to numbers released by the Labor Department on Friday.

Amazon plans to expand its same-day delivery service to 20 more U.S. cities next year, the e-commerce giant said in a statement.

The same-day pharmacy expansion will more than double the number of cities where customers can order medication by 4 p.m. and receive it at home by 10 p.m.

The news was among several announcements by the Seattle-based company around its recent Amazon Prime Day promotion, including its planned hiring of 250,000 full-time, part-time and seasonal roles across its U.S. customer fulfillment and transportation operations to prepare for the upcoming shopping season.

Amazon's pharmacy rollout comes as other national pharmacy chains such as Walgreens, CVS and Rite Aid have been closing locations.

Amazon didn’t reveal the full list of the 20 new cities, but the company's statement said customers in Boston, Dallas, Minneapolis, Philadelphia and San Diego will get access to the same-day medication delivery service, with more cities announced in the coming months.

"Amazon is leveraging its vast logistics network and advanced automation technology to solve one of pharmacy’s biggest pain points: the lack of convenient, affordable access to medications," Amazon said in a statement.

ByteDance, the parent company of social media platform TikTok, is cutting hundreds of jobs from its global workforce, the company told Reuters on Friday.

The job cuts that total less than 500 positions include a large number of staff in Malaysia as the China-based company shifts focus to artificial intelligence in content moderation.

ByteDance has over 110,000 employees in more than 200 cities globally, according to its website, and is in expansion mode in the United States.

TikTok last summer agreed to lease seven more floors of former Microsoft space at an office tower east of Seattle in the latest high-profile deal the company has signed to rapidly expand its office portfolio across the country.

The tech giant also last spring established a hub in Nashville, Tennessee, in one of the city's biggest office deals of the past decade. The real estate expansion comes as it faces a mounting threat of a ban in the United States.