With business confidence collapsing, Bloomberg's Consumer Comfort index - after dropping to its lowest since December [5] - plunged once again this week to 40.9 (from 42.4). This is the lowest since Novemeber and extends the losing streak to 7 weeks - something we have not seen sionce May 2008. This confirms Gallup's weekly tracking of consumer confidence [6] dropped back to its lowest levels since early December 2014 with 53% of Americans now saying the economy is getting worse. Despite all the exuberance over lower oil prices, Consumer Comfort in The South is crashing. Perhaps even worse - for a consumer-driven economy - is that the "buying-climate"suffered its biggest drop since Dec 2011.
[7]
7th week in a row of confidence collapse....
[8]
Consumer Comfort in The South appears to be catching down to the plunge in crude...
[9]
Gallup's economic confidence [6] index dropped back to 2014 levels also...
[10]
For the week ending May 24, 23% of Americans said the economy is excellent or good while 29% said it is poor, resulting in a current conditions score of -6. The economic outlook score of -11 is the result of 42% of Americans saying the economy is getting better and 53% saying it is getting worse.
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Summing it all up...
[11]
Charts: Gallup and Bloomberg
