March Consumer Confidence Plunges

March consumer confidence plunged to 59.7 from 69.6, and well below expectations of a 67.5 print. Both components of the index dipped, with both the present situation and expectations indices sliding from 61.4 and 72.4, to 57.9 and 60.9, respectively.

And just to make sure the S&P ramps to all time highs on ongoing miserable economic, corporate profit and, of course, sovereign insolvency news, we got both New Home Sales, dropping from 431K to 411K, missing expectations of 420K, and the Richmond Fed also missing expectations of a 6 print, dropping from last month's 6 to 3. All in all, if this latest round of ugly and rapidly getting worse economic data doesn't send the S&P to new all time highs, nothing will. Well, perhaps another European country going broke may do the trick. Read more >>

Michigan Consumer Sentiment Dives

U.S. consumer confidence fell in December to a five-month low as Americans grew more concerned about the possibility of higher taxes next year.

The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan consumer sentiment index decreased to 72.9, the weakest since July, from 82.7 in November. Economists projected a final reading of 75 for December, according to the median of 66 estimates in a Bloomberg survey. Today’s figure was lower than a preliminary report earlier this month.

American households are growing uneasy as the federal government moves toward more than $600 billion of higher taxes and spending cuts starting early in 2013. At the same time, as the world’s largest economy enters the new year, job growth, rising home values, lower gas prices and stock market gains might help boost consumer spending, which accounts for about 70 percent of the economy. Read more>> 

Consumer Comfort Gauge Signals Severe Discontent For Fifth Week

Consumer confidence in the U.S. was little changed last week, hovering near an eight-month low, as Americans struggled with rising gasoline prices and elevated unemployment.

The Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index was at minus 46.5 in the period ended Sept. 2 compared with minus 47.3 in the prior week. It was the fifth consecutive week the index has registered a reading lower than minus 40, a level typically associated with severe economic discontent.

A ninth consecutive weekly advance brought gasoline prices to the highest level in four months, giving households reason to be concerned about their finances. The dreary views are prompting retailers and manufacturers such as General Motors Co. (GM) to use promotions to entice customers.

“Despite very aggressive discounting from retailers and General Motors that have bolstered retail sales, households remain quite pessimistic on the state of the economy and their own personal finances,” said Joseph Brusuelas, a senior economist with Bloomberg LP in New York. Read more >>

Consumer Confidence Crashes to 9 Month Low

With inflation expectations soaring and jobs plentiful relative to hard-to-get falling slightly, Consumer Confidence plunged its most in 10 months to a level not seen since November of last year. It seems that despite all the hopes and prayers priced into US equity market valuations, the US Consumer remains unimpressed, unhappy, and unemployed. Of course, the 'good is bad, bad is better' market has interpreted this as a clear QE-on flag (for this millisecond anyway). Read more >>

Consumer Confidence Falls to Two-Year Low

Consumer confidence unexpectedly slumped in October to the lowest level since March 2009, when the U.S. economy was in a recession, as Americans’ outlooks for employment and incomes soured.

Limited job availability, deteriorating home values and the threat of a European debt default are weighing on sentiment. A drop in optimism helps explain concern among some companies like Levi Strauss & Co. that spending will falter during the holiday shopping season.

“Dysfunctional labor and housing markets and the turmoil in Europe all are drags on confidence,” Robert Dye, chief economist at Comerica Inc. in Dallas, said before the report. “Consumers are fundamentally constrained, and consumer spending won’t be leading the economy forward.” More...

Rasmussen - Consumer Confidence Hits Two-Year Low

Image via WikipediaThe Rasmussen Consumer Index, which measures the economic confidence of consumers on a daily basis, fell three points on Thursday to 67.8. That’s the lowest level in nearly two years, since July 24, 2009. Consumer confidence is down four points from a week ago, down eleven points from a month ago and down ten points from three months ago.

Confidence in the stability of the U.S. banking system is also down.

Following last Friday’s disappointing jobs report, confidence fell to a 2011 low and then regained a bit of lost ground. It often takes a full week before the impact of a jobs report is reflected in consumer confidence data.

Just 30% say their own finances are in good or excellent shape. That’s down from 43% just before Lehman Brothers collapsed in the fall of 2008 and from 35% when Barack Obama took office. At the beginning of 2011, 34% rated their own finances good or excellent.

Twenty-eight percent (28%) rate their finances as poor, up from 23% at the beginning of the year.

Just 21% believe their own finances are getting better while 52% say they are getting worse. Those figures are also more pessimistic compared to the beginning of the year. The first update of 2011 showed that 24% thought their finances were getting better and 43% thought they were getting worse. More...

New Yorkers' consumer confidence hits 14-month low

Image via Wikipedia

Richard A. D'Errico
New Yorkers consumer confidence dropped to its lowest point in more than a year, according to the latest Siena Research Institute poll.

Consumer confidence in New York fell 4.6 points in June to 63.4, while the nation’s consumer confidence rose 2.4 points to 76.0. The national figure is compiled by the University of Michigan. In June 2009, consumer confidence stood at 64.3; in June 2008 it was 52.6.

The latest consumer confidence breaks a two-month streak of consumer confidence improvements. The current figure is the lowest since April 2009, when it hit 62.1.

A reading of 75.0 is the break-even point, where an equal percentage of people are optimistic and pessimistic. The consumer confidence index measures peoples’ willingness to spend, as opposed to their ability to spend.

Buying plans were down in all categories—cars and trucks, computers, furniture, homes and major home improvements, according to the Siena Research Institute poll. The institute is affiliated with Siena College in Loudonville.

“It hasn't happened recently,” said Douglas Lonnstrom, founding director of the Siena Research Institute, said of buying plans being down in all categories. The last time it happened was in October 2008.

There is no margin of error associated with the confidence readings, because they are index numbers developed in a series of statistical calculations.

Read more: New Yorkers' consumer confidence hits 14-month low - The Business Review (Albany)

Gallup Polling Paints Much Bleaker Economic Outlook Picture Than UMichigan

Even as the increasingly more unreliable UMichigan consumer confidence index surged more than expected in June, to the highest reading in two years, in yet another doctored attempt to stimulate consumers to buy assorted trinkets they don't need and max out their credit cards, a comparable, and traditionally much more comprehensive Gallup polls, paints a vastly different picture. As the chart below demonstrates, the spread between those who see the economy as getting better (32%) and worse (63%) has hit 31, and is threatening to break out the highest reading recorded in the past year. It is no surprise that with nobody trading at all, US stocks are back to their old trickey of spiking ever higher on no volume and on increasingly worse news out of Europe, and not to mention on an atrocious NFP and retail saels report for May, both of which are now promptly forgotten. More...