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47.6
“Consumer confidence plunged to a record low in April as fears mounted over rising energy prices and the broader impact of the Iran war, according to a University of Michigan survey Friday,” CNBC reports.“The university’s headline index of consumer sentiment tumbled to 47.6, down 10.7% from March to its lowest on record. Current conditions and expectations indexes also saw double-digit monthly declines.”
84.5
The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index® fell by 9.7 points in January to 84.5 (1985=100), from an upwardly revised 94.2 in December. A 5.1-point upward revision to December’s reading of the Index resulted in a slight increase last month, reversing the initially reported decline. However, January’s preliminary results showed confidence resumed declining after a one-month uptick. The Present Situation Index—based on consumers’ assessment of current business and labor market conditions—dropped by 9.9 points to 113.7 in January. The Expectations Index—based on consumers’ short-term outlook for income, business, and labor market conditions—fell by 9.5 points to 65.1, well below the threshold of 80 that usually signals a recession ahead. The cutoff for preliminary results was January 16, 2026.
-7 points
Consumer confidence dropped by nearly 7 points in November, as Americans sour on the economy with the holiday season fast approaching, reports The Hill. The Consumer Confidence Index, calculated monthly by the Conference Board, fell from 95.5 in October to 88.7 this month. This marks the lowest consumer confidence rating since April, when it was 86. In November 2024, consumer confidence hit 111.7, its highest rating since July 2023.
70%
A new Wall Street Journal-NORC poll finds that “the share of people who say they have a good chance of improving their standard of living fell to 25%, a record low in surveys dating to 1987. … More than three-quarters said they lack confidence that life for the next generation will be better than their own, the poll found. … Nearly 70% of people said they believe the American dream—that if you work hard, you will get ahead—no longer holds true or never did, the highest level in nearly 15 years of surveys.”
-1.3 points
The Conference Board said Tuesday that its consumer confidence index ticked down by 1.3 points to 97.4 in August, down from July’s 98.7, but in the same narrow range of the past three months, the AP reported. A measure of Americans’ short-term expectations for their income, business conditions and the job market fell by 1.2 points to 74.8, remaining significantly below 80, the marker that can signal a recession ahead.
86
CNN: “Consumer confidence sank 7.9 points in April to a reading of 86, the Conference Board said in its latest survey released Tuesday. That’s the lowest level since May 2020 and a larger decline than economists had projected. … The survey’s Expectations Index, which captures people’s outlook on the economy, plummeted 12.5 points this month to 54.4, the lowest level in 13 years.”
110.7
US consumer confidence rose in December by the most since early 2021 as Americans grew more upbeat about the labor market and the inflation outlook. The Conference Board’s index increased to 110.7 in December from a revised 101 reading in November, data published Wednesday showed. The median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of forecasters called for a 104.5 reading.
