U.S. Consumer Confidence Slumps More Than Expected In April

(RTTNews) - Largely reflecting a significant deterioration by consumer expectations, the Conference Board released a report on Tuesday showing its U.S. consumer confidence index slumped by more than expected in the month of April.

The Conference Board said its consumer confidence index plunged to 86.0 in April from an upwardly revised 93.9 in March.

Economists had expected the consumer confidence index to tumble to 87.5 from the 92.9 originally reported for the previous month.

Stephanie Guichard, Senior Economist, Global Indicators at The Conference Board, noted the steep drop dragged the consumer confidence index down to levels not seen since the onset of the COVID pandemic.

The bigger than expected decrease by the headline index came as the expectations index plummeted to 54.4 in April from 66.9 in March, hitting its lowest level since October 2011.

"Notably, the share of consumers expecting fewer jobs in the next six months (32.1%) was nearly as high as in April 2009, in the middle of the Great Recession," said Guichard.

She added, "In addition, expectations about future income prospects turned clearly negative for the first time in five years, suggesting that concerns about the economy have now spread to consumers worrying about their own personal situations."

The report showed a more modest decrease by the present situation index, which edged down to 133.5 in April from 134.4 in March.

A separate report released by the University of Michigan last Friday showed consumer sentiment in the U.S. deteriorated modestly less than previously estimated in the month of April.

The University of Michigan said its consumer sentiment index for April was upwardly revised to 52.2 from a preliminary reading of 50.8. Economists had expected the index to be unrevised.

Despite the upward revision, the consumer sentiment index is still down sharply from 57.0 in March and marks its lowest level since hitting 51.5 in July 2022.