U.S. February Consumer Confidence - A recent bounce is fading
February consumer confidence with a fall to 106.7 from a downwardly revised January reading of 110.9 (from 114.8) puts the index below December’s 108.0 too, though remains above the levels seen 1n September, October and November. A recent bounce as hopes for rate cuts built appears to be fading.
The decline on the month is led by the present situation, which fell by 7.7 points to 147.2, while expectations fell by only 1.7 points to 79.8. January’s downward revision was led by the present situation too.
However, this still means that the present situation only reversed a January increase. Expectations have seen two straight monthly declines.
The labor differential shows a 27.8% more see jobs as plentiful than see them as hard to get, down from 31.7% in January but still above December’s 27.3%, which implies slower but still healthy job growth in February.
The 12-month average inflation expectation of 5.2% is down from 5.3% and the lowest since pre-pandemic levels of 4.5%. The average is well above the median of 4.2% (from 4.3%) suggesting the average is inflated by some with extremely pessimistic views.
