The consumer confidence survey from the Conference Board on Tuesday also suggested that Americans were getting ready to hunker down as dark clouds gather, with the share of them planning to buy major household appliances over the next six months falling to the lowest level since 2011.
The Conference Board said its consumer confidence index fell to 101.3, the lowest reading since July 2022, from 104.0 in March. Economists polled by Reuters had expected the index to be unchanged at 104.0 in April. The drop reflected a deterioration in expectations for consumers under 55 years and households earning $50,000 and over.
Consumers remained upbeat on the labor market, with the share of them viewing jobs as "plentiful" rising, while the proportion of those saying jobs were "hard to get" dipped. The survey's so-called labor market differential, derived from data on respondents' views on whether jobs are plentiful or hard to get, rose to 37.3 from 36.5 in March, consistent with a tight labor market.
"Take consumer purchase plans with a grain of salt," said Tim Quinlan, a senior economist at Wells Fargo in Charlotte, North Carolina. "This stands in contrast to reports of record-long wait times for passport application processing and airline ticket bookings that are already close to filling up for the summer."