U.S. Consumer Comfort Eased Last Week From Three-Month High
- Democrats’ index exceeds Republicans’ by second-most on record
- Sentiment on economy at highest level since early April
Consumer comfort eased last week from a three-month high as Americans became a bit less upbeat about their finances, according to the weekly Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index released Thursday.
The confidence index has see-sawed within a narrow 2.9-point band since mid-December on mixed economic news, and is currently hovering near this year’s average. Since the index is a rolling average of the last four weeks, the latest reading has yet to fully incorporate the potential effects of market turmoil from Britain’s decision to leave the European Union. Another source of uncertainty is the U.S. presidential election, which is beginning to show up in differing attitudes among the political parties. Republican consumers are growing more downbeat while sentiment among Democrats is improving. The comfort index for Democrats exceeds that of Republicans by the second-widest margin since records began in 1990.