The Reuters/University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment for the end of October is a revised report, but this came in at 73.2. What is interesting is that the preliminary report was higher at 75.2, and Bloomberg had a consensus for the revision of 74.8.

We saw that the current index was 89.9, with the expectations index down at 62.5. Unfortunately, that is lower than the preliminary reports of 92.9 on the current index and 63.9 on the expectations index.

In short, this sentiment measurement is lower on all counts. How much of it you want to chalk up to the government shutdown and the mood in the media around it is up to you.

One thing worth noting here is that this is not a government report. We always have had an issue with the manner in which the data are collected, the size of the sample and how this report is released. That being said, the University of Michigan report can influence markets. The usual impact is seen on the preliminary report in the middle of the month, and it often takes a very big discrepancy in the revision to make the market move.

On Twitter, perhaps the best tweet we saw was the one from @ZeroHedge:

UMich must have drunk dialed the wrong sample of day traders

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