- Consumer confidence unexpectedly dropped in June.
- The decrease reflected less favorable assessments of both current conditions and the near-term outlook.
- Conference board said its consumer confidence index fell to 49.3 in June from a revised 54.8 in May.
- The decrease surprised economist, who had expected the index to edge up to 55.3 from 54.9 originally reported from the previous month.
"The recent increase of gasoline prices and a more pessimistic take on the labor market obviously prevented a further improvement of consumer sentiment.” – Bernd Weidensteiner (Analyst, Commerzbank)
- Present situation index fell to 24.8 in June from 29.7 in May.
"continues to imply that economic conditions, while not as weak as earlier this year, are nonetheless weak.” – Lynn Franco (Director of the Conference Board Consumer Research Center)
- Those claiming business conditions are “bad” rose to 45.6 in June from 44.5 in may.
- While those claiming conditions are “good” fell to 8.0% from 8.8%
- Consumers also had less favorable assessment of the labor market, with those saying jobs are “hard to get” rising to 44.8% in June from 43.9% in May.
- Those saying jobs are plentiful fell to 4.5% from 5.8% in May.
- Report also showed a deterioration in consumer’s short-term outlook, as the expectations index fell to 65.5 in June from 71.5 in May.
- Those expecting conditions to worsen over the next 6 months rose to 20.2% in June from 18% in May, while those anticipating an improvement in conditions fell to 21.2% from 22.5%.
- Consumers were also pessimistic about the job outlook. Those anticipating fewer jobs in the months ahead increased to 27.3% in June from 25.6% in May, whole those expecting more jobs fell to 17.4% from 19.3%.
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