Shares sink, bitcoin tumbles beneath $90,000 for first time since November
Shopper confidence declined sharply in February as extra Individuals felt uneasy concerning the future state of the US financial system, in line with new knowledge launched Tuesday morning.
The Convention Board’s Shopper Confidence Index for February got here in at a studying of 98.3, a major drop from January’s revised 105 studying and in need of the 102.5 studying anticipated by economists.
“In February, shopper confidence registered the biggest month-to-month decline since August 2021,” mentioned Stephanie Guichard, senior economist of world indicators at The Convention Board. “That is the third consecutive month-on-month decline, bringing the Index to the underside of the vary that has prevailed since 2022.”
The “Current State of affairs Index,” which measures shoppers’ evaluation of present enterprise and labor market situations, fell to 136.5 in February from 139 in January.
The “Expectations Index,” which tracks shoppers’ short-term outlook for revenue, enterprise, and labor market situations, additionally fell to 72.9 in February from 82 final month. Traditionally, a studying beneath 80 in that class alerts a recession within the coming 12 months. This was the primary time since June 2024 that the index got here in beneath that threshold.
In the meantime, common 12-month inflation expectations jumped from 5.2% final month to six% in February.
“This improve doubtless mirrored a mixture of components, together with sticky inflation but additionally the current bounce in costs of key family staples like eggs and the anticipated impression of tariffs,” Guichard mentioned. “References to inflation and costs normally proceed to rank excessive in write-in responses, however the focus shifted in direction of different subjects.”
“There was a pointy improve within the mentions of commerce and tariffs, again to a stage unseen since 2019. Most notably, feedback on the present Administration and its insurance policies dominated the responses.”
