Economic Sentiment Recovers As Consumer Confidence In The U.S. Housing Market And Broader Economy Grows

After a dip at the beginning of June, consumer confidence rose over the past two weeks to reach 53.3 points, according to the HPS-CivicScience Economic Sentiment Index (ESI). The index rose a total of 0.9 points, increasing from a reading of 52.4 on March 12th.

The bump in economic sentiment was driven by a 2.4 point increase in consumer confidence towards the housing market, as well as an equal increase in confidence in the broader economy.



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Overall, four of the ESI’s five indicators increased during the two-week reading period. Consumer sentiment towards the labor market also rose from 47.3 points to 48.6 points, a 1.3 point increase. Additionally, confidence in making a major purchase rose by 0.5 points to 53.6 points. The only indicator to not experience an increase was consumer sentiment towards personal finances, which moved down 66.4 points to 64.4 points, a 2.0 point drop.


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The ESI’s three-day rolling average ended the reading period on the upswing at 53.5 points, 2.0 points off of a high-point of 55.5. After starting out the reading period at 52.1 points on June 13th, the moving average reached its peak of 55.5 on June 16th. After Trump’s June 18th threat of new tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese goods elevated global trade tension and retaliatory measures from other countries, the three-day rolling average plunged to a low of 51.4 points on June 21st before inching back up to 53.5 points to end the reading period.



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The next release of the ESI will be July 10, 2018.

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 (HPS) is an analytical public affairs consulting firm with offices in Washington, D.C. and San Francisco. We integrate substantive analysis with communications and believe a deep understanding of business and economics leads to more effective public engagement and better outcomes for our clients.

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.