Timber! Consumer Confidence Plummets Across All Indicators

Consumer confidence fell quickly over the past two weeks, according to the HPS-CivicScience Economic Sentiment Index (ESI). Despite last reading’s surge, the ESI fell from its peak by 1.2 points to 53.3. The steep decline was the result of sagging confidence across the board, but driven by a significant drop in confidence towards the labor market.

All five of the ESI’s indicators fell over the past two weeks. Consumer confidence in the labor market fell the most, decreasing by 2.8 points to 44.2. Sentiment toward making a major purchase and the U.S. economy both decreased by 1.1 points to 48.2 and 56.3, respectively. Reductions in confidence in the housing market and personal finances rounded out the sour reading as they fell by 0.8 and 0.1 points.

The decline follows January’s boost of confidence and comes amid a wave of destabilizing news, including the senate impeachment trial and fear over the spread of the novel coronavirus. This news has driven down markets, led to swings in oil prices , and kept American’s on the edge of their seat.

The three-day rolling average started at its peak of 54.9. It then experienced a steady decline, reaching its low of 52.0 on January 30 and again on Feb. 3 before closing the reading on an upswing, ending at 53.5.

The next release of the ESI will be on Tuesday, February 18, 2020.

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, and follow us on Twitter – @HPS_CS.

About Hamilton Place Strategies (HPS)

Hamilton Place Strategies (HPS) is an analytical public affairs consulting firm with offices in Washington, D.C. New York, and California. 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.