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U.S. Consumer Confidence Index +26% in November
Economic Sentiment Retreats From October's Readings
Nov 25, 2014 1:40 PM
By Jeff Miller
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RAPAPORT...
U.S. consumer confidence was much stronger in November than was the case one year ago, according to The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index®, which registered 88.7 points (1985=100) compared with only 70.4 points in November 2013. In addition, the Present Situation Index jumped to 91.3 points from 72 points and the Expectations Index improved to 87 points compared with 69.3 points one year ago.
Even with the year-on-year improvement, The Conference Board, observed that all three measures were sharply lower from readings in October.
Lynn Franco, the director of economic indicators at The Conference Board, said, “Consumer confidence retreated in November, primarily due to reduced optimism in the short-term outlook. Consumers were somewhat less positive about current business conditions and the present state of the job market; moreover, their optimism in the short-term outlook in both areas has waned. However, income expectations were virtually unchanged and gas prices remain low, which should help boost holiday sales.”
The percentage of consumers expecting business conditions to improve over the next six months decreased from 19.4 percent in October to 17.6 percent in November, while those expecting business conditions to worsen rose from 8.9 percent to 10.7 percent. Meanwhile, those anticipating more jobs would become available in the months ahead decreased one full percentage point during the month to 15 percent, while those anticipating fewer jobs jumped more than two percentage points to 16.4 percent. The proportion of consumers expecting growth in their incomes edged down from 16.7 percent in October to 16.3 percent in November's reading.
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Tags:
conference board, consumer confidence, Consumer Spending, index, Jeff Miller
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