US consumer confidence falls in July on worries about future

Confidence among U.S. consumers has seen a substantial deterioration in the month of July, according to a report released by the Conference Board on Tuesday.

The present situation index, a gauge of consumers’ assessment of current economic conditions fell to 107.4 from a revised 110.3 in June, originally put at 111.6.

The median forecast of 72 economists in a Bloomberg survey called for a reading of 100, with estimates ranging from 97 to 103.

Lynn Franco, a Conference Board economist, says consumers may have been anxious by the debt standoff in Greece and a stock market plunge in China. “Consumers continue to assess current conditions favorably, but their short-term expectations deteriorated this month”. An early read of the University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment index for July showed a decline from June’s level as negative headlines from overseas seemed to weigh on consumer sentiment.

Consumers were slightly less positive about the job market. June’s reading was also revised down to 99.8 from 101.4. Those who said jobs are “plentiful” dropped to 20.7% from 21.3%, while those saying jobs are “hard to get” inched up from 26.1% to 26.7%. The cutoff date for the preliminary results was July 16.

Consumers’ outlook for the labor market was even less optimistic.

The percentage of consumers expecting business conditions to improve over the next six months fell to 14.7 percent from 17.9 percent, while those expecting conditions to worsen edged up to 10.7 percent from 10.2 percent.

Consumer confidence declined sharply in July, following a gain in June.