Confidence In Making A Major Purchase Falls More Than Four Points In Four Weeks
Consumer confidence fell another 0.2 points over the past two weeks to 47.0, the lowest level since last October, according to the HPS-CivicScience Economic Sentiment Index (ESI). This dip comes after a full two point drop during the previous two weeks. Within the five components of the index, confidence in making a major purchase has fallen more than four points in the past four weeks. However, the three-day rolling average suggests confidence is regaining, with it rising from 46.2 to 48.2 over the course of the two-week period.
Consumer confidence in making a major purchase, finding a new job, and in the U.S. economy all fell. Confidence in the U.S. economy fell by 2.2 points, the third largest drop of the year. On the other hand, confidence in purchasing a new home fully erased the 2.1 point drop from the previous two weeks, while confidence in personal finances jumped 1.7 points, ending a four-week decline. Overall, the impact of market volatility over the past four weeks seems to have hit making a major purchase the most. In total, confidence in making a major purchase fell more than four points.
Looking at the three-day rolling average, consumer confidence recovered a few points after falling three points in the weekend after the stock market drop on August 21st and 22nd. After stagnating, the three-day rolling average jumped back above 48 in the final day of the two-week period.
The next release of the ESI will be September 22 .
About the Index
The HPS-CivicScience Economic Sentiment Index (“ESI”) is a “living” index that measures U.S. adults’ expectations for the economy going forward, as well as their feelings about current conditions for major purchases. The primary goal of the Index is to accurately measure movements in overall national economic sentiment, and to provide a more sophisticated alternative to existing economic sentiment indices. Unlike other prominent indices that release consumer sentiment estimates infrequently, the HPS-CivicScience Index is updated in real time as responses are collected continuously every hour, every day. Large-scale cross-tabulation of survey responses and consumer attributes enable more granular analyses than are currently possible through prevailing measures.
For a more detailed overview of the Index and the underlying methodology, please request a white paper.
About Hamilton Place Strategies (HPS)
Hamilton Place Strategies is a policy, advocacy, and communications consulting firm with a focus and expertise at the intersection of government, business, and media.
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About CivicScience
CivicScience, Inc. provides the leading intelligent polling and real-time consumer insights platform, the InsightStore™. Its proprietary platform powers the world’s opinions and quickly gets that data to the decision makers who care. Every day, CivicScience polls ask millions of people questions related to thousands of topics, while its powerful data science and big data technology analyzes current consumer opinions, discovers trends as they start, and accurately predicts future behaviors and market outcomes. CivicScience polls run on hundreds of premier websites, in addition to its own public polling site at www.civicscience.com. CivicScience’s InsightStore™ is used by leading enterprises in marketing research, advertising, media, financial services, and political polling. For more information, visit CivicScience by clicking here and follow them on Twitter – @CivicScience.