U.S. consumer confidence fell for a fourth straight month in November amid worries about current business conditions and employment prospects, but remained at levels sufficient to support a steady pace of consumer spending.
This story by Lucia Mutikani originally appeared in Reuters.
While other data on Tuesday showed an unexpected drop in new home sales last month, data for September was revised higher to show purchases surging to their highest level in more than 12 years. The housing market, the most sensitive sector to interest rates, is catching up to the Federal Reserve’s easy monetary policy stance, which has push down mortgage rates from last year’s multi-year highs.
Though housing accounts for a fraction of gross domestic product, it has a bigger economic footprint. The rise in housing activity early in the fourth quarter suggests some support for the economy as it slows amid cooling consumer spending and persistent weakness in business investment and manufacturing, according to Reuters.
The Conference Board said its consumer confidence index slipped to a reading of 125.5 this month from an upwardly revised 126.1 in October. The index was previously reported at 125.9 in September. It has declined for four straight months.
Consumer confidence has retreated from a recent peak of 137.9 in October 2018. The 16-month trade war between the United States and China, which has bruised business sentiment, leading to a drop in capital expenditure that has contributed to a downturn in manufacturing, has been mainly blamed for the slide in consumer confidence.
