Conference Board Confidence Improves, Inflation Expectations Rise In March

Having disappointed for the last two months, analysts expected The Conference Board's Consumer Confidence index to extend its recent modest decline (from 102.9 to 101.0), but instead it bounced a smidge to 104.2.  The Present Situation weakened a little from 152.8 to 151.1 while Expectations rebounded from 69.7 to 73.0.

Source: Bloomberg

The Conference Board's gauge of one-year inflation expectations rose (after tumbling in February)...

Source: Bloomberg

The Conference Board's sentiment remains notably decoupled from UMich's sentiment measure...

Source: Bloomberg

Finally, the Conference Board's measure of labor market tightness worsened (less jobs plentiful vs hard to get) in March...

Source: Bloomberg

That's not what Mr.Powell wants to see.