The figure, the highest since January, “suggests that lower gasoline prices trumped the fading impact from the financial market turmoil a month ago”, said Steve Murphy, economist with Capital Economics. The labor market differential, which measures the share of consumers who thought jobs were plentiful less those who thought they were hard to get, rose to 0.8 (previous: 0.4).
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“While consumers view current economic conditions more favorably, they do not foresee growth accelerating in the months ahead”, said Lynn Franco, director of economic indicators at the board.
The Conference Board, a business research group, said Tuesday that its consumer confidence index rose again to 103 in September after surging in August to 101.3.
The USA economy is looking healthy. “That’s a good combination for consumer confidence”.
The present situation jumped more than five points to 121.1 which is, far and away, the best reading of the recovery, since September 2007.
Economists estimate an index print of 97.5, down from 101.5 in August. Automobile and home buying plans also improved this month, supporting the overall signal from this morning’s data of a strong USA consumer.
Consumers’ optimism about the short-term outlook was little changed in September. But 10.1% think their incomes will decline in the next six months, compared with last month’s 9.8%. The median forecast in a Bloomberg survey before the agency’s September employment report on Friday calls for an increase of about 200,000 jobs. The reason behind these less-than-favorable expectations was the huge market pullback that has been seen over the course of September. Through yesterday, the S&P 500 was down 8.8 percent in the third quarter and nearly 12 percent below its all-time high set in May.
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Still, another gauge of consumers’ spirits – the University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment index – fell this month to the lowest level in nearly a year.
