Consumers Still Fighting Jitters
By Don Hogsett -- Home Textiles Today, 7/3/2006 12:00:00 AM
New York —
Staging a modest rally after a major slide the month before, consumer confidence edged up 1.0% during June to a reading of 105.7 as Americans say they feel better about business conditions looking six months ahead than they do about what's happening now, The Conference Board (CB) reported. On a persistent and worrisome note, consumers feel worse about what's going on now in the economy, which the CB said could point to a slowdown during the back half of the year.
Though managing a modest rally, the June reading won back only a fraction of the steep 4.6% fall-off during May, and the widely watched bellwether of future consumer spending remains 3.7% beneath the April reading of 109.8, which marked a 13-month high in the index.
“The slight bounce-back in confidence this month was a result of the moderate improvement in consumers' expectations,” said Lynn Franco, director of the CB's Consumer Research Center. “Despite the uptick, consumers remain concerned about the short-term outlook.”
She said the part of the index measuring current conditions “lost ground for a second consecutive month, a signal that the economy is shifting into lower gear heading into the second half of this year.”
The portion of consumers claiming conditions are 'good' declined to 26.8% from 28.5% during May. Those claiming conditions are 'bad' eased to 14.9% from 15.2%.
Views of the labor market and jobs outlook were mixed. The number of consumers who think jobs are 'plentiful' dropped to 28.1% from 29.1% a month ago, while the number who think jobs are 'hard to get' decreased slightly, to 19.9% from 20.2%.
Buying plans in June
Plans to purchase over the next six months
| Source: The Conference Board |
|
| Homes | 3.4 |
| Carpets | -12.0 |
| Cars | -14.3 |
| Major appliances | -11.0 |
| Vacation | -5.0 |
Confidence by region
| Region | % change |
| Source: The Conference Board |
|
| New England | -1.6% |
| Middle Atlantic | 5.1 |
| East North Central | 2.5 |
| West North Central | 1.0 |
| South Atlantic | -3.6 |
| East South Central | 3.3 |
| West South Central | 3.8 |
| Mountain | 10.0 |
| Pacific | 3.3 |
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