Consumer sentiment rose to a five-month high in July as views about the outlook improved and gasoline prices remained below wartime highs.<\/p>\n
The University of Michigan\u2019s final July sentiment index increased to 55.2 this month, according to the survey released Friday. That\u2019s an improvement from the preliminary estimate of 54.4.<\/p>\n
Survey responses were collected from June 23 to July 27, a period during which households saw gasoline prices fall to their lowest level since March before renewed tensions in the Middle East drove pump prices back up.<\/p>\n
\u201cConsumers remain focused on pocketbook issues like purchasing power, while political or military developments remain more in the background,\u201d Joanne Hsu, director of the survey, said in a statement. <\/p>\n
\u201cDespite recent gains, sentiment is 11% below a year ago, reflecting a generally somber view of the economy,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
While households remain under pressure from high prices, data out earlier this week underscored how they continue to spend. <\/p>\n
Inflation-adjusted consumer spending climbed 0.4% in June, matching the strongest advance in nearly a year.<\/p>\n
Friday\u2019s report showed a gauge of buying conditions for durable goods \u2014 or items meant to last several years \u2014 climbed to the highest since October.<\/p>\n
Both the current conditions gauge and the expectations index increased from a month earlier. <\/p>\n
Improvements in sentiment were seen across income, age, education and political party. Views on the longer-term economic situation climbed to a one-year high.<\/p>\n
Consumers expect prices to rise 4.2% over the next year, down from the prior month. They also saw costs rising at an annual rate of 3.3% over the next five to 10 years, in line with June.<\/p>\n
The report mentioned artificial intelligence has become a \u201csalient\u201d factor for consumers. <\/p>\n
Hsu said the comments have been negative on net, though consumers cited both positive effects on productivity and negative impacts on the job market.<\/p>\n
Prakash writes for Bloomberg. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Consumer sentiment rose to a five-month high in July as views about the outlook improved and gasoline prices…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":972809,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[12],"tags":[64,12495,38444,79,5208,293633,72199,75707,390445,52704,5991,4155,9105,1630,9108,67,132,68,22968,1628],"class_list":["post-972808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-condition","tag-consumer-sentiment","tag-economy","tag-friday","tag-gasoline-price","tag-high-price","tag-household","tag-inflation-squeeze","tag-joanne-hsu","tag-july","tag-june","tag-month","tag-report","tag-survey","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-view","tag-year"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117018498839585163","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/972808","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=972808"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/972808\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/972809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=972808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=972808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=972808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}