The ebb in confidence reported by the Conference Board on Tuesday was concentrated among consumers aged 55 years and older, as well as among households with annual incomes in the $50,000-$99,000 range. Consumers expected inflation to stabilize at higher levels over the next year.
The cutoff date for the survey, which places more emphasis on the labor market, was May 22. A fight to raise the government's borrowing cap weighed on the University of Michigan's consumer sentiment measure this month.signed off on an agreement The survey's so-called labor market differential, derived from data on respondents' views on whether jobs are plentiful or hard to get, fell to 31.0, the lowest since April 2021, from 36.9 in April, suggesting the labor market was loosening up.
"Job growth is slowing," said Jeffrey Roach, chief economist at LPL Financial in North Carolina. "Investors should expect Friday's job report to reveal emerging cracks in the labor market." , which were published last week, showed policymakers "generally agreed" the need for further rate hikes "had become less certain."
There was a slight increase in the share of consumers planning to buy a house over the next six months. But the rise in demand could be undercut by a perennial shortage of houses on the market, and potentially drive home prices higher.prices increased solidly on a monthly basis in March, surveys showed on Tuesday. The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller national home price index, covering all nine U.S. census divisions, climbed 0.4% in March after adjusting for seasonal fluctuations.