Confidence Ticks Up As Consumers Bid Winter Adieu

Heading into spring, the HPS-CivicScience Economic Sentiment Index (ESI) inched upwards over the past two weeks. The Index rose 0.4 points from 49.6 to 50. This increase comes on the heels of a two-month drop from 53.3 to 49.6 and was driven by increases in confidence in making a major purchase and in personal finances. At 50, respondents were equally likely to say they were more confident than less, net those who said stay the same.

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Looking across all five individual components of the Index provides a mixed picture. Confidence in making a major purchase jumped 2.2 points to 51.2, and confidence in personal finances increased by nearly a full point to 59.5.

Consumers were less optimistic about the state of the U.S. economy or their ability to secure a new job, with confidence in the economy dropping to 43.8 and confidence in securing a new job resting at 39.5, half a point lower than two weeks ago. Confidence in the housing market dipped slightly to 56.2.

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The three-day moving average dropped to 48.2 before swinging up to a peak of 52.1 and then ending the two-week period on a downward slope.

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The next release of the ESI will be April 7.

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.