US consumer confidence hits seven-month low in August
US consumer confidence fell to 89.4 in August, the lowest since January, as expectations for jobs and inflation worsened.
American households turned markedly more cautious in August, pushing a key gauge of consumer sentiment to its weakest level in seven months. The Conference Board's consumer confidence index slipped to 89.4 this month, down from a downwardly revised 90.2 in July, according to data released Tuesday.
The latest reading marks the lowest since January and came in below what economists had anticipated. The decline was driven primarily by a sharp 7.8 percent drop in the expectations index, which measures consumers' outlook for the next six months. That slide offset a modest improvement in how households view current business and labor conditions — the first such uptick in four months.
"Consumers were more pessimistic about business conditions and the labor market over the next six months," said Dana Peterson, chief economist at the Conference Board.
A closely watched measure within the survey — the jobs differential, which captures the gap between respondents who say jobs are plentiful and those who say they are hard to find — rose for the first time in three months. That follows a July reading that was the weakest in more than five years.
Inflation expectations also moved higher. Consumers now expect prices to accelerate at a 5.8 percent pace over the next 12 months, up from 5.6 percent in July, signaling that worries about the cost of living remain entrenched.