Michigan Consumer Sentiment: Modest Decline For April Prelim

The April Preliminary came in at 96.9, down 1.5 from the March Final reading. Investing.com had forecast 98.1.

Surveys of Consumers chief economist, Richard Curtin, makes the following comments:

Consumer confidence continued its sideways shuffle in early April, posting an insignificant decline following the small gain recorded last month. Overall, the level of the Sentiment Index during the past 30 months was higher than any other time since 1997 to 2000, the final phase of the record 10-year expansion; a record that will be soon overtaken by the current expansion. Interestingly, the impact of the tax reform legislation on consumer confidence has all but disappeared (see the chart). Spontaneous references to the tax reform program were on balance favorable in January 2018 (22% favorable minus 6% unfavorable). Since then, however, unaided references declined sharply so that by early April the net balance was zero (4% favorable minus 4% unfavorable). The data do not imply that consumers were pleased or displeased with the reforms, especially the limitations on SALT deductions. The data do suggest that consumers thought that its stimulative impact on the overall economy has now run its course. What has been of increasing importance to consumers are rising nominal incomes, and low inflation, producing strong gains in inflation adjusted incomes. Unfortunately, vehicle and home buying have not benefitted from low prices, but consumers have increasingly voiced complaints about rising vehicle and home prices, and slight declines in unit sales of both markets are anticipated in 2019. [More...]

See the chart below for a long-term perspective on this widely watched indicator. Recessions and real GDP are included to help us evaluate the correlation between the Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index and the broader economy.

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To put today's report into the larger historical context since its beginning in 1978, consumer sentiment is 12.5 percent above the average reading (arithmetic mean) and 13.8 percent above the geometric mean. The current index level is at the 83rd percentile of the 496 monthly data points in this series.

Note that this indicator is somewhat volatile, with a 3.0 point absolute average monthly change. The latest data point saw a 1.5 point increase from the previous month. For a visual sense of the volatility, here is a chart with the monthly data and a three-month moving average.

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For the sake of comparison, here is a chart of the Conference Board's Consumer Confidence Index (monthly update here). The Conference Board Index is the more volatile of the two, but the broad pattern and general trends have been remarkably similar to the Michigan Index.

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And finally, the prevailing mood of the Michigan survey is also similar to the mood of small business owners, as captured by the NFIB Business Optimism Index (monthly update here).

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The general trend in the Michigan Sentiment Index since the Financial Crisis lows was one of slow improvement. The survey findings saw a jump in late 2016 with improvements that have recently begun to decline.

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The next update to this report will be for the April final data and will be published April 26.