The consumer confidence report came out today. It’s widely covered, so I assume you know that it had a huge positive spike. Here’s the press release. I’m not actually going to pay to read the full survey, though sometimes I feel like I should. I find it funny that a stock market rally is typically a cause of increased confidence (it’s a noticeable effect), and the market rallied off of an increase in consumer confidence. The circular logic doesn’t really appeal to me. Plus, it’s considered a lagging indicator, and I don’t really like the idea of spending money to find out where things were. The press release is sufficient to know the big picture. This month, consumer confidence increased by the most in six years. Note that despite the tremendous change (+14.8 to 54.9), it’s still low by historical standards. I did find this bit from the press release interesting:

Consumers’ overall assessment of current-day conditions improved again. Those claiming business conditions are “good” increased to 8.7 percent from 7.9 percent. However, those claiming conditions are “bad” increased to 45.3 percent from 44.9 percent. Consumers’ appraisal of the job market was also more favorable. Those claiming jobs are “hard to get” decreased to 44.7 percent from 46.6 percent in April. Those saying jobs are “plentiful” edged up to 5.7 percent from 4.9 percent.

Consumers’ short-term outlook improved significantly in May. Those expecting business conditions will improve over the next six months increased to 23.1 percent from 15.7 percent, while those anticipating conditions will worsen declined to 17.8 percent from 24.4 percent in April.

There’s a loss of middle ground in the opinions. Consumers are still fairly pessimistic.