Following the crash (to record lows) of UMich Sentiment, analysts expected The Conference Board's consumer confidence index to tumble in June. They were right but it was a considerably bigger miss with the headline falling to 98.7 from 103.2 (revised lower) and well below the 100.0 expected. This was largely driven by a collapse in 'expectations' from 73.7 to 66.4 (present situation confidence fell from 147.4 to 147.1)...
Source: Bloomberg
That is the weakest level for 'hope' in the future since 2013.
The Conference Board is starting to catch down to the record lows of UMich...
Source: Bloomberg
So that's your average joe' American, but your 'average joe' American business is also increasingly pessimistic as Richmond Fed's Manufacturing confirms with a crash to COVID lockdown lows (printing -19 in June from -9, dramatically missing expectations of a small rebound to -7)
Under the hood, shipments and new orders collapsed and local business conditions were a bloodbath... with expectations for conditions in the future worsening notably.
Finally, we also note that for the first time since 2019, 'soft' survey data is below 'hard' real economic data...
Source: Bloomberg
'Hope' is getting hammered - almost a one way street lower since Biden was elected - now near its lowest since before Trump was elected....