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As Biden sleeps through the Hamas invasion of Israel, that is nothing new. Biden is sleeping through a disastrous downturn in the economy and pretending that Bidenomics is working. It isn’t Joe! The IBD/TIPP U.S. Economic Optimism Index sank to a 12-year low in October as confidence in the near-term economic outlook crashed to the lowest level in the poll’s history. The survey casts doubt on the Federal Reserve’s justification for turning more hawkish last month: robust consumer spending. The overall IBD/TIPP U.S. Economic Optimism Index dived 6.9 points to 36.3, the lowest since August 2011. Readings below the neutral...

Wasting away again in Bidenville, look for my lost economy. Face it, nothing has been the same since 1) the Covid economic shutdowns, 2) the massive spending spree by Congress, the massive expansion of monetary stimulus by The Federal Reserve and 3) the election of Unaffordable Joe Biden, The latest University of Michigan consumer survey is out and it is ugly, reflecting Biden’s ugly approval ratings. A sentiment value of 100 is a good baseline and US consumers were about at 100. Then Covid struck and the ensuing economic and school shutdowns (thank a lot Randi Weingarten, President of the...

New Yorkers are feeling more optimistic about the economy, according to a new Siena College poll released Wednesday, Sept. 14. The New York State Index of Consumer Sentiment was up 9.1 points to 70.8 in the third quarter of 2022, the poll found. That’s 12.6 points above the nation’s Index of 58.2. The current index rose nearly 12 points from the previous quarter to 64.1 and the future index increased nearly eight points from 67.6 to 75.2, researchers found. Future confidence in the state is 17.2 points higher than the nation’s 58.0. “New Yorkers’ collective sentiment continues to outpace the...

How low will consumer sentiment (and Biden’s approval ratings) go? This is Biden’s limbo rock. One measure of how bad things are in the US for the middle-class and low-wager workers ix consumer sentiment from University of Michigan. The latest University of Michigan survey of consumers remains depressed at 51.1. The consumer sentiment index was at 80.7 at the beginning of 2021, but has plunged dramatically with rising gasoline, food and inflation in general. Biden’s popularity has sunk from 55.8 in January 2021 to 38.1 today. How about housing sentiment? Housing sentiment was 134.0 in January 2021 but has plunged...

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...

What a legacy for Biden/Pelosi/Schumer/Powell, the four horsemen of the inflation apocalypse. As inflation soars, the University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment index plunged to its lowest level in history. The good news? The University of Michigan Buying Conditions for housing only fell to its lowest level since 1982. The four horsemen of the inflation apocalypse.

In a stunning miss, University of Michigan Sentiment collapsed in preliminary June data, crashing from 58.4 to 50.2 (massively below the 58.1 expectations). Source: BloombergThat is the lowest reading ever for UMich. Worst consumer confidence IN HISTORY pic.twitter.com/EW5UtBc1AY — zerohedge (@zerohedge) June 10, 2022 Don’t worry though, ‘they’ are on it… *YELLEN: AMAZING HOW PESSIMISTIC HOUSEHOLDS ARE GIVEN JOB GAINS Maybe you should give them more stimmies to cheer them up? — zerohedge (@zerohedge) June 9, 2022 Developing…

The oil price collapse is not over yet. It is more likely that the Brent price could fall back into the mid-$50 range than that it will continue to rise toward $70 per barrel. That is because oil prices have risen based on sentiment alone. The fundamentals of supply and demand indicate a dismal reality: oil prices will fall and may fall hard in the near term. Our present situation is like that of the cartoon character Wile E. Coyote. He routinely ran off of a cliff and as long as he didn’t look down, everything was fine. But as...

<p>Consumer sentiment dipped modestly in early March, entirely due to reduced expectations for the future, a survey said on Friday.</p> <p>The preliminary Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan overall index of consumer sentiment fell to 79.9 in March, down from the 81.6 final reading in February. That was below analyst expectations for a reading of 82 and the lowest level for that index since November.</p>

I generally recommend that people buy guns the way they'd buy power tools, or automobiles, or homes. Assess your needs, analyze your budget, correlate it all with your ability to utilize the thing you're buying, and you'll probably be happy with your purchase and get a lot of productive use out of it. It's the logical thing. Unfortunately, we humans are not always creatures of logic. Sometimes, we are creatures of emotion, and anyone who has dealt with emotion-driven arguments that are without logic — oh, most of the "gun control" arguments, for example — know the downside of that....

U.S. consumer sentiment unexpectedly rose to its highest level in five years in October as consumers became more optimistic about the overall economy in a possible boost to President Obama's reelection hopes next month. The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan's preliminary October reading on the overall index on consumer sentiment came in at 83.1, up from 78.3 the month before, and the highest since September 2007, the survey showed on Friday.

...The preliminary sentiment reading for October hit 57.5, compared with 59.4 in September. Economists polled by MarketWatch had expected a slight rise, to 59.7, with volatility in the stock market offsetting lower gas prices...

A gauge of consumer sentiment declined in October, as expectations and views on current conditions fell... The preliminary sentiment reading for October hit 57.5, compared with 59.4 in September. Economists polled by MarketWatch had expected a slight rise, to 59.7, with volatility in the stock market offsetting lower gas prices. ... The sentiment reading, which covers how consumers view their personal finances as well as business and buying conditions, averaged about 87 in the year before the start of the most recent recession.

The final reading for September showed that sentiment rose to 59.4 from 55.7 in August, which was the lowest level since November 2008. A preliminary reading released earlier this month estimated a sentiment level of 57.8 for September. With stock volatility and weak employment maintaining downward pressure on sentiment, economists polled by MarketWatch had expected a slight rise to 57.6 in September.

The preliminary sentiment reading for September increased to 57.8 from 55.7 in August. The August reading was the lowest level since November 2008 with Washington’s protracted debt-ceiling negotiations taking a toll on consumers. “The mood of Americans remains dark so far this month, but not as dark as in August. Not that they can be blamed...,” wrote Jennifer Lee, senior economist at BMO Capital Markets... ...Economists polled by MarketWatch had expected a reading of 57.3...

CHART OF THE DAY: Is Economic Pessimism Already Worse Than The Worst Of Last Summer? Joe Weisenthal Jun. 2, 2011, 12:28 PM How fast things can change: Suddenly everyone is bearish, and in the matter of days the talk of "double dip" and "QE2" has come roaring back. In fact, by some measure, pessimism may already be worse than it was last August, right before QEII and the re-acceleration of positive data. This chart from JPMorgan's Thomas Lee -- as part of his big calls to buy cyclicals -- shows that the relative PE of cyclicals vs. defensives is well...

Bullish Sentiment Near 2-1/2 Year High by: AAII October 28, 2010 Optimism among individual investors reached its highest level in nearly two and one-half years, according to the latest AAII Sentiment Survey. Bullish sentiment, expectations that stock prices will rise over the next six months, rose 1.6 percentage points to 51.2%. The historical average is 39%. Neutral sentiment, expectations that stock prices will stay essentially flat over the next six months, rose 2.0 percentage points to 27.2%. This is the highest neutral sentiment has been in five weeks. The historical average is 31%. Bearish sentiment, expectations that stock prices will...

Consumer Confidence Rebounds In October, Beats Expectations Gregory White Oct. 26, 2010, 10:00 AM Consumer confidence rose to 50.2 in October. Expectations were for a 50. In September, consumer confidence plunged to 48.5. That was a seven month low. Markets barely moved on the news, and still remain negative. Dow down 0.33% NASDAQ down 0.44% S&P 500 down 0.33% Check out 20 signs the American consumer is completely tapped out >[snip]

Citi: Rebounding Sentiment Forecasts Even Further Gains For Stocks Vincent Fernando, CFA Oct. 16, 2010, 9:18 AM Market sentiment has finally back to normal according to Citi's Panic/Euphoria model. The firm notes that sentiment is now 'barely in panic territory' in its latest PULSE Monitor report. Citi: This week’s Panic/Euphoria reading was -0.21; versus last week’s revised number of -0.23, generating a high probability of a rally over the next six-to-12 months. What's interesting is how well this model worked during the recent crisis, whereby forward returns (shown in gray above) ended up being high when sentiment collapsed in early...

Detailing The Bullishness Everywhere by: Seeking Delta October 10, 2010 The NAAIM (active money managers) and AAII (individual investors) sentiment surveys were released Wednesday and Thursday respectively. Both showed a sizable increase in bullish sentiment. Active managers continue to pile into equities as the NAAIM survey saw a jump in its weekly number from 68% last week to 78% this week. The eight week moving average has been trending up since last July. At 78%, the current equity exposure is now in the “extremely” bullish category (identified as one standard deviation above average). The NAAIM number measures current equity exposure...