Everything is awesome... or terrible - depending on when you were asked. The Conference Board's consumer confidence surged to its highest since October 2015 at 98.1 (beating expectations of 96.5). However, Gallup shows economic confidence crashing back from a post-State of the Union bounce to its lowest since November 2015. Take your pick...
Everything is awesome...
“Consumer confidence improved slightly in January, following an increase in December,” said Lynn Franco, Director of Economic Indicators at The Conference Board. “Consumers’ assessment of current conditions held steady, while their expectations for the next six months improved moderately. For now, consumers do not foresee the volatility in financial markets as having a negative impact on the economy.”
Everything is aweful...
President Barack Obama's upbeat analysis of the nation's economic progress in his Jan. 12 State of the Union speech may have helped lift the weekly Economic Confidence Index five points to -7. That gain disappeared last week, with the index returning to -12. Nearly all the movement over the past three weeks has come among Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents, particularly in their outlook for the economy.
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Most worryingly though, for The Fed, is that inflation expectations have collapsed to 2007 lows for consumer expectations as market expectations hit record lows...