US Consumer Confidence Dropped in February

March 31, 2017 Share Print 0

A measure of consumer sentiment came in lower than expected on Friday, according to the University of Michigan.

The University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment index hit 96.9 in March. A consensus from Thomson Reuters expected 97.6, unchanged from early March.

Richard Curtin, surveys of consumers chief economist, said, “The continued strength in consumer sentiment has been due to optimistic views on three critical components: higher incomes and wealth, more favorable job prospects, and low inflation expectations.”

“The data indicate that real consumer spending will advance by 2.7 percent in 2017, but those gains will be uneven over time and across products,” Curtin added.

Consumer sentiment dropped to 96.3 in February, down from 98.5 in the month prior.

The monthly survey of 500 consumers measures attitudes toward topics, such as personal finances, inflation, unemployment, government policies and interest rates.

via CNBC

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Alfonso Esparza

Senior Currency Analyst at Market Pulse

Alfonso Esparza specializes in macro forex strategies for North American and major currency pairs. Upon joining OANDA in 2007, Alfonso Esparza established the MarketPulseFX blog and he has since written extensively about central banks and global economic and political trends. Alfonso has also worked as a professional currency trader focused on North America and emerging markets. He has been published by The MarketWatch, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal and The Globe and Mail, and he also appears regularly as a guest commentator on networks including Bloomberg and BNN. He holds a finance degree from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM) and an MBA with a specialization on financial engineering and marketing from the University of Toronto.