U.S. Consumer Confidence Rises To 92.6 In December

Updated: U.S. Consumer Confidence Rises To 92.6 In December

Tuesday December 30, 2014 10:00 AMThe Christmas holidays created a little cheer for U.S. consumers as optimism rose in December, reversing some of the declines seen in November, according to data from the U.S. Conference Board.  The board said its monthly Consumer Confidence Index rose to 92.6 from November’s revised reading of 91.0. In its initial reading, last month’s index was at 88.7.
Some economists anticipated a boost in optimism; according to consensus forecasts, economists expected the index to rise to about 94.6.
In the report, the board said that the Present Situation Index rose to 98.6, up from the previous reading of 93.7, but at the same time the Expectations Index fell to 88.5, from November’s reading of 89.3.
“Consumer confidence rebounded modestly in December, propelled by a considerably more favorable assessment of current economic and labor market conditions. As a result, the Present Situation Index is now at its highest level since February 2008,” said Lynn Franco, director of economic indicators at The Conference Board.
Although the data shows that optimism was generally positive, the current outlook of the labor market was relatively mixed. According to the board’s survey, participants who said jobs were “plentiful” increased to 17.1% from the previous survey of 16.2%; at the same time, participants who said jobs were “hard to get” fell to 27.7% from the previous level of 28.7%.
Similar to the overall report, the future outlook for the labor market was slightly weaker as participants who said that they anticipated more jobs in the months ahead dropped to 14.7%, compared to the previous survey of 15.5%. Participants who said that they anticipated fewer jobs in the future increased to 16.9% from 16.4%.
Eric Green, head of U.S. rates and economic research at TD Securities described the consumer report as “positive with a few wrinkles.”