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According to the Conference Board, consumer confidence, which includes a key indicator on where consumers see the economy going and what they plan to do as a result, is looking up.Reuters reports:The Conference Board said its consumer confidence index increased to 108.3 this month, the highest reading since April, from 101.4 in November. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast the index at 101.0. While the survey places more emphasis on the labor market, the rebound in confidence matched a similar rise in the University of Michigan's sentiment index.Consumers' 12-month inflation expectations fell to 6.7%, the lowest since September 2021, from...

Summary > Consumer spending increases 0.8% in October > Personal income rises 0.7%; saving rate falls to 2.3% > Core PCE price index gains 0.2%; up 5.0% year-on-year > Weekly jobless claims fall 16,000 to 225,000 U.S. consumer spending increased solidly in October, while inflation moderated, giving the economy a powerful boost at the start of the fourth quarter as it faces rising headwinds from the Federal Reserve's aggressive monetary policy tightening. The labor market, the economy's other pillar of support, continues to show resilience. The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits declined last week, almost unwinding...

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen blamed consumers' excessive spending habits as a primary cause for the near 40-year-high in inflation on Wednesday. The Biden official appeared on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" where she was asked about the price increases that have plagued the U.S. for more than a year.

The Fannie Mae Home Purchase Sentiment Index (HPSI) decreased 2.0 points in June to 62.8, its second-lowest reading in a decade, according to their latest report. Surveyed consumers continue to express pessimism about homebuying conditions, with only 17% (down from 20%) of respondents reporting it’s a good time to buy a home, while the percentage of consumers who believe it’s a “Good Time to Sell” fell from 68% to 67% this month.

Roaring inflation is tanking Americans' confidence in the economy.. U.S. consumer confidence tanked in early June, reaching the lowest level ever recorded as soaring inflation batters Americans' budgets and fuels concerns for the economy at large. The University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index released Friday shows the index plunged to 50 this month, a 14.4% drop from May and the lowest reading since the survey began in the late 1970s. ... The survey indicated declines in every component, reflecting a bleak vision from respondents: The year-ahead outlook tumbled 24%, while Americans' assessments of their personal financial situations worsened by 20%....

The COVID policies promoted by Dr. Fauci, the World Health Organization, CDC and the majority of influential public health “experts” had devastating consequences, according to a new analysis published by Nature. The report suggests that over 75 million people have been thrown into poverty, defined as making less than $1.90 US per day, than were expected before the pandemic response started. This graphic shows how previous expectations were for global poverty rates to decline, only for the trends to completely reverse once lockdowns got underway: ... Income losses were also dramatic across all demographics, but especially targeted lower earning workers....

It took a while and trillions in fiscal and monetary stimulus to recover from Covid-era economic lockdowns, but now that the monetary stimulus is being withdrawn, the economy is stalling. If you look at the chart below, you can see that “The Thrill Is Gone” from monetary and fiscal stimulus. And The Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Index fell below 100 as M2 Money Stock YoY returns to pre-Covid levels. You are gonna have to face it, we’re addicted to gov (stimulus).

(Reuters) - Wall Street’s main indexes tumbled in midday trading on Tuesday as a sharp drop in consumer confidence brought to the fore growth risks from rising inflation. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 shed the initial gains from a rise in bank shares as the latest batch of economic data raised doubts on the U.S. economy’s resilience to withstand hefty interest rate hikes from the Federal Reserve. The consumer confidence index dropped 4.5 points to a reading of 98.7 in June, a Conference Board survey showed, as consumers anticipated economic growth would weaken significantly in the...

St. Louis Fed President Bullard made a remark the other day that consumers are healthy so a recession is unlikely. Consumers are healthy? It is true that the US U-3 uemployment rate is low (3.6% versus 14.70% in April 2020 thanks to government shutdowns over Covid). But even though unemployment is low, consumer sentiment is at its lowest point since 1977. Generally, consumer sentiment is high when unemployment is low, but not this time around. Currently, inflation is at the highest level since March 1980 even though consumer sentiment bottomed-out in April 1980. Here is my chart showing that REAL...

San Francisco (CNN Business)Americans are racking up debt at record rates. Consumer debt levels for March 2022 climbed by $52.4 billion, an annual increase of 14%, seasonally adjusted, according to Federal Reserve data released Friday. Revolving credit, which includes credit cards, surged by 21.4%.

New York (CNN Business)Americans got into a lot more debt in February as rampant inflation kept up the pressure, the Federal Reserve's consumer credit report showed Thursday. Debt levels jumped by nearly $42 billion to a total of almost $4.5 trillion. That's an annual increase of 11.3%, seasonally adjusted, far outperforming economists' expectations and setting a new high. In January, total credit had grown only 2.4%. The Fed's historical consumer credit data goes back to the early 1940s. Revolving credit, which includes credit cards, jumped by 20.7% to about $1.1 trillion. The category increased by only 4% in the prior...

Two years ago, slippers went stratospheric. Normally, they sell in cycles. There is an “on” season for slippers through the fall and winter. Then, sales taper off during the warmer months. But 2020 was different. Slipper sales that April almost doubled versus 2019. The COVID-19 pandemic was in full swing. Folks were in no hurry to leave their homes. They were dressing for leisure, streaming entertainment, and saving their cash… And while we saw odd bursts in products like slippers, huge swaths of the economy suffered. But today, a big thaw is coming to the global market. Travel plans are...

Inflation climbed to another four-decade high in February with prices expected to push even higher on the back of soaring energy prices following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The Department of Labor said that the consumer price index rose 7.9 percent compared with a year ago. Prices were up 0.8 compared with the prior month.

The Labor Department reported Thursday that the Consumer Price Index, or CPI — a broad basket of goods and services — continued to rise, increasing by 0.8 percent in February, or 7.9 percent year over year, on track with economists’ expectations. Core inflation rose by 0.5 percent for the month. The core inflation metric includes prices of goods and services from rent to airline tickets to furniture but strips out food and energy prices, which tend to be volatile even when they are not rocked by geopolitical crises. The prospect of inflation peaking would have been a welcome balm to...

Researchers from Catholic University of Portugal, Boston College, Korea University, University of Texas at San Antonio, and Rice University published a new paper in the Journal of Marketing that identifies customers’ political ideology as an important driver of their satisfaction. The study, forthcoming in the Journal of Marketing, is titled “How Political Identity Shapes Customer Satisfaction” . . Customer satisfaction is of utmost importance to firms. It drives customer word-of-mouth, loyalty, and sales, which is why many firms spend millions or even billions of dollars innovating the customer experience. This new research identifies customers’ political ideology as an important driver...

President Biden on Monday met with 10 CEOs from major retailers and grocers to discuss the holiday shopping season, touting the success of last week's Black Friday sales. “Consumer spending has recovered to where it was headed before the pandemic. Early estimates are that Black Friday sales were up nearly a third since last year and in-store sales were up by even more than that,” Biden said. Eight CEOs sat at the table with Biden, including Best Buy's Corie Barry, Samsung's KS Choi and Kroger's Rodney McMullen, with others joining virtually. Brian Deese, director of the National Economic Council, and...

Inflation across a broad swath of products that consumers buy every day was even worse than expected in October, hitting its highest point in more than 30 years, the Labor Department reported Wednesday. The consumer price index, which is a basket of products ranging from gasoline and health care to groceries and rents, rose 6.2% from a year ago. That compared to the 5.9% Dow Jones estimate. On a monthly basis, the CPI increased 0.9% against the 0.6% estimate. Stripping out volatile food and energy prices, so-called core CPI was up 0.6% against the estimate of 0.4%. Annual core inflation...

Consumers’ short-term inflation expectations reached a record high in October, according to survey results released Monday by the Federal Reserve of New York. Heads of households surveyed by the New York Fed expected consumer prices to rise by a median of 5.7 percent over the next year, according to the bank’s October Survey of Consumer Expectations. The one-year inflation rate projected by consumers rose 0.4 percentage points since September and reached the highest level since the survey began in 2013. The median expectation for the inflation rate for the next three years stayed even at 4.2 percent, a record set...

The fall of new coronavirus infections gave a boost to consumer confidence in October but inflation fears are still rising, the Conference Board said Tuesday. “While short-term inflation concerns rose to a 13-year high, the impact on confidence was muted. The proportion of consumers planning to purchase homes, automobiles, and major appliances all increased in October—a sign that consumer spending will continue to support economic growth through the final months of 2021,” said Lynn Franco, the senior director of economic indicators at the Conference Board.

Consumer prices increased slightly more than expected in September as food and energy price rises offset declines in used cars, the Labor Department reported Wednesday. The consumer price index for all items rose 0.4% for the month, compared with the 0.3% Dow Jones estimate. On a year-over-year basis, prices increased 5.4% versus the estimate for 5.3% and the highest since January 1991. However, excluding volatile food and energy prices, the CPI increased 0.2% on the month and 4% year over year, against respective estimates for 0.3% and 4%. Dow futures were slightly positive following the news while government bond yields...