Consumer confidence slips in February as anxiety over potential recession surprisingly reappears
Associated PressAmerican consumers are feeling less confident this month as concerns over a possible recession grew despite most recent data pointing to a healthy U.S. economy. The Conference Board, a business research group, said Tuesday that its consumer confidence index fell to 106.7 from a revised 110.9 in January. Americans were slightly less worried about food and gas prices last month, the Conference Board said, but expressed more concern about jobs and the ongoing presidential campaign. “In the case of jobs, the market is still strong, it’s just much less strong than a year ago when job swapping for higher pay was easy,” said Robert Frick, an economist at the Navy Federal Credit Union. “Overall, consumers are set to benefit from declining interest rates as the Fed starts to lower the target range this year,” said Rubeela Farooqi, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics, “which should be supportive of sentiment over time.” In another contradictory twist, the number of people in the Conference Board’s survey who said they planned to make a big-ticket purchase like a car or major appliance in the next six months rose.