Consumer Sentiment in U.S. Rises to Second-Highest Since 2007

[Purveyor]

Source: Bloomberg

10:00 AM EDT
May 1, 2015

Consumer confidence increased in April to the second-highest level in more than eight years as Americans grew more upbeat about their financial prospects.

The University of Michigan said Friday that its final index for the month increased to 95.9 from 93 in March. The median projection in a Bloomberg survey of economists was for 96, little changed from the preliminary April reading of 95.9.

A stronger sense of job security and building momentum in wage growth are helping to buoy confidence, which may encourage consumers to spend rather than save their paychecks. Low fuel costs and continued labor market progress will help keep households upbeat even as the Federal Reserve considers raising interest rates for the first time since 2006.

“Confidence is down from its absolute high in the last couple months, but it still shows a clear net pickup recently,” Jim O’Sullivan, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics in Valhalla, New York, said before the report. “The confidence numbers look consistent with consumer spending picking up.”

Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-05-01/consumer-sentiment-in-u-s-rises-to-second-highest-since-2007

---

[BumRushDaShow]

1. I'm confused

Just 3 days ago, we had this sort of headline - http://www.usnews.com/news/business/articles/2015/04/28/us-consumer-confidence-slides-in-april

US consumer confidence drops in April to lowest level in 4 months

AP

By PAUL WISEMAN, AP Economics Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. consumer confidence fell this month to the lowest level in four months, knocked down by a slowdown in hiring.

The Conference Board said Wednesday that its consumer confidence index fell to 95.2 in April from 101. 4 in March, the lowest reading since December's 93.1.

Consumers' assessment of current economic conditions fell for the third straight month, and their expectations for the future fell as well.

Lynn Franco, the Conference Board's director of economic indicators, blamed "the recent lackluster performance of the labor market." The American economy generated just 126,000 jobs last month, breaking a 12-month streak of at least 200,000 new jobs a month; 31 states registered job losses in March.

Consumers' view of the current job market deteriorated in April. They were also more likely to say that there would be fewer jobs and that their own incomes would be lower in six months. The share saying they planned to buy a car or a major appliance within six months fell. The decline in confidence hit all age groups.

http://www.usnews.com/news/business/articles/2015/04/28/us-consumer-confidence-slides-in-april

Yet from the OP -

Consumer confidence increased in April to the second-highest level in more than eight years as Americans grew more upbeat about their financial prospects.

The University of Michigan said Friday that its final index for the month increased to 95.9 from 93 in March. The median projection in a Bloomberg survey of economists was for 96, little changed from the preliminary April reading of 95.9.

A stronger sense of job security and building momentum in wage growth are helping to buoy confidence, which may encourage consumers to spend rather than save their paychecks. Low fuel costs and continued labor market progress will help keep households upbeat even as the Federal Reserve considers raising interest rates for the first time since 2006.

This is probably why people have just tuned out from the media. What is that saying about "lies, damn lies, and statistics"?

[Demeter]

2. (it's propaganda...pass it on!)

Ignore that man behind the curtain...I am the great and powerful American Economy!

[BumRushDaShow]

3. We've always had propaganda (a/k/a "yellow journalism")

Although in this particular case, "snapshots" don't tell the whole story

[whatthehey]

4. to people worried about inconsistency...you could just, you know, read

(General comment, not applied to the OP)

..and see that these are two different organizations measuring subjective opinion, which intrinsically has wide variation, using different samples and different questions.

If you REALLY cared a whole earthshattering lot, like enough to post about it, you could have googled both organizations in less time than it took to post, and found out their respective samples and weighting, and interpreted the results objectively.

or, of course, you could invent some massive Illuminati/Elders of Zion type conspiracy carefully devised to confuse and herd the common man who somehow makes important decisions based on independent monthly surveys covered in a few below the fold articles, in order to bend him to some dark Macchiavellian designs.

[Demeter]

5. Been there, done that, and it's all crap

It is all propaganda.