They're a little bit cautious about where the overall economy is headed, where employment is headed and their income as well. These three factors have combined to make them somewhat cautious in their outlook. |
This cautious attitude will have consumers shopping for bargains this season. Retailers will need to offer discounts and promotions to get shoppers into their stores. |
This degree of pessimism, in conjunction with the anticipation of much higher home heating bills this winter, may take some cheer out of the upcoming holiday season, ... In order to avoid a blue Christmas, retailers will need to lure shoppers with sales and discounts. |
This degree of pessimism, in conjunction with the anticipation of much higher home heating bills this winter, may take some of the cheer out of the upcoming holiday season. |
This latest improvement in consumer confidence was sparked by a more favorable assessment of current business and labor market conditions and increased consumer optimism about the next six months. The job market, which has a major impact on confidence, appears to be gaining strength. |
This month's confidence readings paint a gloomy picture of current economic conditions, with no apparent rebound on the short-term horizon. |
This month's gain in Consumer Confidence has pushed the Index to a near four-year high (May 2002, 110.3). The improvement in consumers' assessment of present-day conditions is yet another sign that the economy gained steam in early 2006. Consumer expectations, while improved, remain subdued and still suggest a cooling in activity in the latter half of this year. |
This month's gain in Consumer Confidence has pushed the index to a near four-year high. |
This month's increase was driven solely by consumers' assessment of current economic conditions, especially their more positive view of the job market. |
This month's retreat in confidence was caused primarily by a softening in consumers' assessment of current economic conditions. Consumers' expectations remain virtually undaunted and signal continued expansion in the months ahead. |
Until we see sustainable strong growth in the labor market, we're likely to see some volatility in the overall index. It's going to depend on putting back-to-back months of good news on the jobs reports to convince the consumer. |
We could be very well in a period where this is as good as it gets. If prices at the pump keep ticking, and they actually have been ticking upward since this survey was cut off, it very well could take a bite out of confidence. |
We think a lot of that is reaction to the spike in prices at the pump following Katrina. |
We're a little more positive about the outlook of the holiday shopping season than we were in October. |
We've noticed that with the 24-7 electronic-technological boom over the last several years, things have really accelerated. The pace of change, the learning curve on the job -- we're seeing some of that stress spill over and have a negative effect on employee attitudes. |