Consumer Diffidence

Yeah, I didn’t know what diffidence meant either…

Bloomberg reports:

Confidence among U.S. consumers slipped unexpectedly in June, reflecting a weak labor market.

The Conference Board’s sentiment index decreased to 49.3 from a revised 54.8 in May, the New York-based research group said today. The figure was still above a record low of 25.3 reached in February. Another report showed home prices fell at a slower pace in April than in the previous month.

“The optimism that started to build over the last few months may be starting to fade,” Michael Gregory, a senior economist at BMO Capital Markets in Toronto, said before the report. “Labor markets are sort of stabilizing in terms of job losses, but the big issue is people are having a hard time finding a job.”

Source: Conference Board