Consumer confidence dipped for a fourth straight month in November as economic conditions weaken towards the end of 2019. The Conference Board shows that confidence index dipped to 125.2 this month. That's down from 126.1 in October, which was expected to rise to 126.6. The present situation index also fell to 166.9 from 173.5 in November, which suggests that economic growth in the final quarter of 2019 will remain weak. Will the strong expections of the holiday season be able to maintain the economic growth and bring the last quarter to be strong in terms of consumer confidence?
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/11/26/us-consumer-confidence-for-november-comes-in-at-125point5-vs-126point6-estimate.html
I think there's several underlying causes that are creating this uncertainty about the future and therefore decreasing consumer confidence. The trade way is definitely a significant factor and the fact that the Fed keeps cutting interest rates only reiterates the fact that the economy is struggling. As hard as it is to miss out on those holiday season sales, I dont think it'll make too big a difference and increase consumer spending.
ReplyDeleteI feel as though consumer confidence will rise during the holiday season. I read an article about consumer confidence and the holidays and it states that based off its survey of 7500 consumers, their confidence metric was "seesawing" as well. It says that in October, consumer confidence levels were up month over month at 50.7% compared to 49.7% in September. However, after that, consumer confidence began to fall for two consecutive months. It also mentioned how households with $150,000+ saw a larger slowdown in confidence. I wonder what causes some of this outside of hearing about the economy struggling.
ReplyDeleteI believe that the upcoming holiday period will slightly improve consumer confidence and the American economy. Due to the previous periods of slow economic growth, the gradually improvements in consumer confidence and economic growth will likely only be slight adjustments in the figures and not have a major effect on American economy.
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