- Mark Vitner, senior economist at Wells Fargo Securities
US consumers mood darkened in July, as households were worried about current and future job growth, and rattled by events in China and Greece. The Conference Board reported that its index of consumer confidence dropped to 90.9 this month, hitting the lowest level since September. June's reading was revised to show 99.8, down from originally reported 101.4. The present situation index, an indicator of consumers' assessment of current economic situation, slid to 107.4, compared with a revised 110.3 in June, originally put at 111.6. Consumer expectations for economic activity over the next six months plummeted to 79.9 from a revised 92.8, initially estimated at 94.6. The report showed that consumer were less optimistic about the labour market. Some 20.7% of consumers this month thought jobs are "plentiful," down from 21.3% in June. Another 26.7% described jobs as "hard to get" in July, up from 26.1% saying that in the prior month. The share of respondents anticipating more jobs in the next six months fell to 13.1% in July from 17.1% in June. The share expecting fewer jobs surged to 20.0% from 15.2%.
Consumers' perceptions about the labour markets could play into the Fed assessment of the economy and interest rates. The US central bank started a two-day meeting on Tuesday and will release a policy statement later in the day.
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