US Consumer Confidence Stops Collapsing As Hope Rebounds

Consumer confidence in May rose to 86.6 vs. 85.7 prior month, according to The Conference Board, with “expectations” rising as the current situation worsens…

• Present situation confidence fell to 71.1 vs. 73.0 last month.

• Consumer confidence expectations rose to 96.9 vs. 94.3 last month.

Source: Bloomberg

Current Business Conditions are seen as their worst ever (blue) but according to the survey, expectations for better business ahead are also at record highs…

Source: Bloomberg

Presumably, if you’re told enough times that there will be a ‘v’-shaped recovery, you start believing it, but we do note that the modest rise in the headline confidence data pales in terms of the liquidity puked into the markets to keep the stock market dream alive.

Notably, it is the youngest households that are the least confident…

Source: Bloomberg

Maybe ‘hope’ is a strategy after all?