According to the Conference Board’s latest index value, based on a survey conducted by Nielsen, U.S. consumer confidence retreated from 101.4 in March to 95.2 in April. The same agency’s ‘present situation’ and ‘expectations’ indices also fell month to month, from 109.5 to 106.8 in the first instance and from 96.0 to 87.5 in the second. Poor first-quarter gross domestic product (GDP) growth (+0.2% annualized) and a lame March employment report (only +85,000 net new jobs) depressed sentiment. (We’ll look at the April jobs report in a moment.)
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