The Conference Board has just released its Consumer Confidence reading for the month of May, showing that the decline seen in April was even a larger decline in May.  The index came in at 64.9 versus 68.7 in April and versus 69.7% expected by Bloomberg.  While it seems odd that the consensus would have increased considering the slowdown and the drop in the markets, the range of the Bloomberg surveys was 67.5 to 72.0.  Perhaps one of the issues that skewed the estimates was that the cutoff date for the preliminary results was May 16 and that was two weeks ago.

Both components showed a drop as well: The Expectations Index declined to 77.6 from 80.4, while the Present Situation Index decreased to 45.9 from 51.2 last month.

Those claiming business conditions are “bad” rose to 34.3% from 33.2%, while those saying business conditions are “good” fell to 13.6% from 15.5%.

The job market was also deemed as being less favorable as those claiming jobs are “hard to get” increased to 41.0% from 38.1%, while those stating jobs are “plentiful” decreased to 7.9% from 8.4%.  That may not influence the expected unemployment and non-farm payrolls data due this coming Friday.

JON C. OGG

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