Today's early release of the Reuters/University of Michigan Survey of Consumers for July indicated a notable worsening of consumer sentiment with a reading of 63.8 falling 5.90% below the level seen last year while one year inflation expectations declined to 3.4%.The Index of Consumer Expectations (a component of the Index of Leading Economic Indicators) plunged to 55.8, and the Current Economic Conditions Index slid to 76.3.
It's important to recognize that consumer sentiment has seriously eroded over the past few months and while pricing pressure from gasoline appears to be waning, consumer mood looks to be reflecting a more fundamental level of dissatisfaction with economic conditions.
