Consumer Confidence At 54.1 On Expectations Of 53.0, Prior Revised Lower To 49.9

by Tyler Durden


The propaganda crew is out in full force today, as virtually the entire growth in the confidence number was in expectations. We expect a presidential address on how Americans are delighted that Europe is disintegrating, that Ireland is on the verge of civil disobedience, that jobless benefits are expiring and that one can barter a roll of toiler paper for a house.

Some more irrelevant numbers:

•Jobs Plentiful: 4 vs. Prev. 3.5
•Jobs Hard to Get: 46.5 vs. Prev. 46.1
•Inflation: 5.1% vs. (Prev. 5.0%)
Elsewhere, the ABC Consumer Comfort index will come out today after the close, and will post another near all time low reading.

Goldman's take on the number:

The Conference Board reported a 4.2-point improvement in its index of consumer confidence, to 54.1. While obviously better than in October, this is still in the low range (bounded by 46 on the low side and 63 on the high side) that has prevailed since the recovery began in mid-2009. Almost all of the increase was in expectations; the present situation index rose only 0.5 point, to 24.0. That said, it is the expectations component of the Michigan index that is part of the index of leading economic indicators. Consumers' assessments of job availability-the percentage of respondents saying jobs are plentiful less the percentage saying they are hard to get-registered a back-door improvement by edging up to -42.5 from a downward-revised -42.8 in October; the October figure had previously been reported at -42.1.