Confidence among U.S. consumers declined in April from a six-year high as Americans became less enthusiastic about the economy and labor market.
The Conference Board’s index decreased to 82.3 from 83.9 a month earlier that was stronger than initially estimated and the highest since January 2008, the New York-based private research group said Tuesday. The median forecast in a Bloomberg survey of 78 economists called for a reading of 83.2.
Limited gains in the stock market this year, rising prices at the gas pump and a slowdown in the housing market tied in part to higher interest rates risk leaving Americans less sanguine about their finances. At the same time, more Americans anticipated an increase in employment opportunities in the next six months, which would help keep sentiment and consumer spending from faltering.
“Consumer attitudes in this cycle, as have so many things, have kind of lagged what we would consider to be normal in the mature phase of a recovery,” said Stephen Stanley, chief economist at Pierpont Securities LLC in Stamford, Conn., whose projection of an 82 reading was among the closest in the Bloomberg survey. “Attitudes continue to be pretty restrained in terms of the job market.”
Estimates of consumer sentiment ranged from 80.8 to 87.8 in the Bloomberg survey.
