After a hotter than expected summer of economic data, consumers weren't as exuberant about the state of the economy in August.
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell highlighted the bullish July confidence numbers during last month's press conference.
"It is a good thing headline inflation has gone down a bit," Powell said. "I would say that having headline inflation move down that much...will strengthen the broad sense that the public has that inflation is coming down, which will, in turn, we hope, help inflation continue to move down."But since then, consumers have digested a fresh Consumer Price Index report that revealed prices increased 3.
As of Tuesday morning, the average gallon of gas is $3.82, nearly equal to the cost of gallon a year ago, and up $0.08 from last month. "Higher gasoline prices have likely weighed on confidence as well and could continue to do so as gasoline prices remain more elevated than earlier in the summer," Citi's economics team wrote on Tuesday. "We see more downside risk to confidence measures early next year as the labor market could start to weaken more meaningfully."Expectations for the near term declined to a reading of 80.2 in Tuesday's release.
"Assessments of the present situation dipped in August on receding optimism around employment conditions: fewer consumers said jobs are 'plentiful' and more said jobs are 'hard to get,'" Dana Peterson, chief economist at The Conference Board,
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