12 Feb 2016
US consumer confidence misses but offset - ING
James Knightley, analyst at ING Bank explained that US consumer confidence as measured by the University of Michigan dipped to 90.7 in February versus 92.0 in January.
Key Quotes:
"This is a bit weaker than the 92.3 consensus, but isn’t too bad given the scale of equity market sell-off. Indeed, strong employment gains, rising real incomes and a firm housing market are providing enough offsetting effects for now and with retail sales having come in stronger than expected (when upward revisions are included) it looks a reasonably encouraging consumer spending story for now."
"However, equity markets don’t seem particularly interested unfortunately and the longer that this goes on the greater the risk that it feeds negatively into the real economy through weaker sentiment and tighter financial conditions."
Key Quotes:
"This is a bit weaker than the 92.3 consensus, but isn’t too bad given the scale of equity market sell-off. Indeed, strong employment gains, rising real incomes and a firm housing market are providing enough offsetting effects for now and with retail sales having come in stronger than expected (when upward revisions are included) it looks a reasonably encouraging consumer spending story for now."
"However, equity markets don’t seem particularly interested unfortunately and the longer that this goes on the greater the risk that it feeds negatively into the real economy through weaker sentiment and tighter financial conditions."