Consumer Confidence Takes Another Hit

The Conference Board has released its reading for Consumer Confidence for the month of April. April’s reading came in at 69.2 and this is a slight disappointment. Bloomberg had a consensus expectation from its economist surveys of 69.7 and the range was as low as 66.9 to as high as 72.5.

It is important to keep in mind that the Conference Board’s reading on consumer confidence in March dipped to 70.2 from February’s 71.6 as the expectations component weighed.  That expectations component is also more heavily weighted than the present situation component.

For this month there is yet another drop in the Expectations component with a drop to 81.1 in April from 82.5 in March.  The Present Situation component improved to 51.4 from 49.9 last month.

If you want it in context, consider part of the quote as neutral… “Overall, consumers are more upbeat about the state of the economy, but they remain cautiously optimistic.”

In order to get this report’s findings, the Conference Board surveys 3,000 households around the country each month.  Another consideration is that today’s date is April 24 and the cutoff date for the preliminary results was April 12.

JON C. OGG