U.S. consumer confidence unexpectedly fell in December to a four-month low. The Conference Board index dropped to 88.6 from a downwardly revised 92.9 in November, according to a report Tuesday. That missed all estimates in a Bloomberg survey of economists that had called for a rise to 97 in the index.
At least that’s the headline story. The survey actually produces two indexes, one that measures sentiment about about current conditions. That’s the index that fell the most since April. But the survey also asks about expectations for the future. That measure rose from a four-year low. Adding to that rising optimism about the future, the share of survey respondents who said they expected their incomes to increase edged up to 16.8 from 16, the Conference Board said. That’s an improvement off a pretty low base, of course.
On the labor market, the share of survey respondents saying jobs are plentiful declined for a second month. For expectations, the share saying that fewer jobs will be available in the next six months rose to a seven-year high of 22.2%.
