U.S. Consumer Confidence Edges Down

By Ed Frankl

U.S. consumers grew a little less confident this month, as jitters about the future grew, a monthly survey said.

Research group The Conference Board said Tuesday that its consumer-confidence index slipped to 100.4, from last month's 101.3. Economists polled by The Wall Street Journal had expected the index to fall marginally more, to 100.0 this month.

But positive views of the current labor market continued to outweigh concerns about the future, as confidence remained in the same narrow range that's held throughout the past few years, group economist Dana M. Peterson said.

"However, if material weaknesses in the labor market appear, confidence could weaken as the year progresses," she added. Employers added 272,000 new jobs in May, easily beating expectations, the Labor Department said earlier in June.

Views of the present situation improved slightly, but opinions of current business conditions cooled. However, respondents' outlook for both future income and business conditions worsened, leading to the expectations sub-index being below the threshold that usually signals a recession ahead for the fifth-straight month, The Conference Board said.

Declining confidence was mainly centered on consumers aged 35-54, with those older and younger seeing sentiment tick up.

Meanwhile, average inflation expectations for the year ahead dipped slightly to 5.3% from 5.4%, after inflation in May came in slightly cooler than expected.

Write to Ed Frankl at edward.frankl@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 25, 2024 10:43 ET (14:43 GMT)

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