Consumer Comfort: Modest Uptick

METRIC PAUSES AFTER MONTH-LONG SLIDE

|| By FITSNEWS || After a month-long slide, consumer comfort in America ticked up ever-so-slightly this week.

Bloomberg’s Consumer Comfort Index (CCI) stood at 40.7 this week – up from last week’s reading of 40.3.

Take a look at the trend lines …

(Click to enlarge)

(Chart: via Bloomberg)

What do the “experts” think?

“The break in losses echoes last week’s status-quo jobs report: monthly payroll
growth continued upward at a steady-but-not-dramatic clip and the unemployment
rate stood pat at 5.3 percent,” the analysts who compiled the data noted. “Recent drops in gasoline prices, which had hit their highest levels of the year from mid-June to mid-July, may have also helped arrest the slide of the CCI, which often falls with rising fuel prices.”

Oh great … the “fuel prices” narrative again.

The CCI – published weekly since December 1985 – records Americans’ views on three key items: The national economy, the buying climate and their personal finances. Produced by Langer Research Associates, its data is based on 1,000 national random-sample landline and cellular telephone interviews, 250 per week (in a four-week rolling average).

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