Surprising new reports have emerged reporting that consumer confidence has dropped drastically in June of this year, adding more tension to an already shaky economic situation. For those of you not familiar with the term, check out the following definition from Wikipedia.
“Consumer confidence is the degree of optimism that consumers feel about the overall state of the economy and their personal financial situation. How confident people feel about stability of their incomes determines their spending activity and therefore serves as one of the key indicators for the overall shape of the economy. In essence, if consumer confidence is higher, consumers are making more purchases, boosting the economic expansion. On the other hand, if confidence is lower, consumers tend to save more than they spend, prompting the contraction of the economy."
According to a Yahoo Finance article, “the consumer confidence index fell to 49.3 in June from 54.8 in May,” while economist had predicted “healthier reading of 55.0 for the month.” Not surprisingly, the announcement has had a pretty decent impact on the U.S. stock market. Check out the following article explaining the affect on stocks courtesy of Reuters.
U.S. consumer confidence took an unexpectedly steep slide in June, figures released on Tuesday showed, suggesting the 18-month-long recession had yet to loosen its grip on the economy.
A separate report on April house prices in major cities offered some encouraging signs that the worst of the housing slump may be over, but that was not enough to lift investors' spirits. Another crop of economic data showed business activity in New York City and the Midwest remained weak, while retail chains slogged through a rough June.
Billionaire investor George Soros added to the cautionary tone, saying that rising borrowing costs posed a threat to any eventual economic recovery.
"As markets revive, fear of inflation will drive up interest rates, which will choke off recovery," he said at a breakfast hosted by the Wall Street Journal.
Major stock market indexes fell after the Conference Board's consumer confidence index showed households felt gloomier about their current situation and less optimistic about what the coming months might bring.