CB Consumer Confidence: Americans Still Eye Price Pressures

U.S. consumers perked up a bit in February, but the mood is hardly euphoric. The Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Index rose 2.2 points to 91.2, recouping only a slice of January’s slide. Households feel slightly less threatened by recession, yet they remain uneasy about paychecks, persistent inflation, and a job market that looks sturdy on the surface but patchy underneath. Meanwhile, gold briefly crossed 5,164 dollars an ounce on Tuesday, a reminder that many investors still prefer hard assets when the economic picture is murky.

Digging into the details, the Present Situation Index—measuring assessments of business and labor conditions—actually slipped 1.8 points to 120.0. That downtick reflects narrower optimism: just 19.7 percent say business conditions are “good,” nearly offset by the 19.0 percent calling them “bad.” The labor-market differential improved to 7.4 points, yet barely more than one in four respondents see jobs as “plentiful”. Pay expectations are likewise muted: only 17.3 percent anticipate higher incomes over the next year, while 12.3 percent brace for a decline. These readings hardly shout “growth” all clear on wage-power.

A less pessimistic number came from the Expectations Index, which climbed 4.8 points to 72.0. Still, that figure sits far below the neutral 100 mark and miles under the 112.8 peak reached just before the 2024 elections. Forward-looking sentiment typically drives big-ticket purchases, so the latest rebound bears watching. Indeed, plans to buy used cars, furniture, TVs, and smartphones edged up, but appetite for homes, the largest store of middle-class wealth, continued to cool. With mortgage rates still elevated and housing supply tight, the American dream increasingly looks like a luxury good.

Demographics tell their own story. Confidence ticked up for Generation Z and respondents under 35, but slipped for everyone older. Politically, Republicans and Independents felt better, Democrats worse. Such splits highlight how headline macro data often mask divergent lived experiences and how fiscal or monetary tweaks rarely deliver uniform benefits. Write-in answers underline the point: inflation, prices, and the cost of living remain the overriding worries, even as Washington officials insist price pressures are “easing.” Trade tensions and immigration also loomed in February, hinting that geopolitics could keep supply chains and, by extension prices, volatile.…