Consumer Confidence Rebounds But Fails To Recapture Full Losses From Previous Decline
Consumer confidence rebounded from its decline during the previous reading, rising 1.3 points to 51.2, according to the HPS-CivicScience Economic Sentiment Index (ESI). During the ESI’s last reading, consumer confidence dropped significantly, bucking a trend of increases from the end of November 2016 through January 2017. This reading’s improvement helps the ESI regain some of its losses, but the index remains 1.6 points below its 2017 peak of 52.8 on Tuesday, January 24.
Consumer confidence in three of the ESI’s five indicators rose, with confidence in making a major purchase increasing the most, jumping 3.8 points to 49.7. Confidence in the housing market and in personal finances also increased, rising 2.9 points to 48.7 and 0.8 points to 64.3, respectively. Consumers felt slightly less confident in the broader U.S. economy, with the indicator falling slightly by 0.2 points to 49.0. Despite this decline, consumer confidence in the broader U.S. economy remains above its 2016 average of 47.5. Economic sentiment toward the labor market declined, falling by a full point to 44.2.
The ESI’s three-day rolling average started the reading at its low point of 49.0. During the course of the two-week reading period, the three-day average rose and fell three separate times. After falling to 50.4 on Friday, February 17, the three-day average increased 2.1 points over the weekend to end at its peak of 52.5 on Tuesday, February 21.
The next release of the ESI will be March 7, 2017.
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.
For more information, visit Hamilton Place Strategies by clicking here and follow them on Twitter – @HPSInsight.
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.