Less than a week after The Conference Board reported gains in consumer confidence for January, so, too, did the Univ. of Michigan Surveys of Consumers report for the month. The group’s index of consumer sentiment reached 93.0 in January, up from 88.8 in December, and the September low of 81.8. What’s more, the index of consumer expectations jumped to 91.3 in January, up from 82.3 in December and 73.5 in September.
But while consumers appear optimistic about the future, they remain uneasy about the present. The current conditions index only nudged up to 95.7 in January from 94.6 in September. In fact, 80% of those consumers surveyed judged the current performance of the economy unfavorably for the January survey, with 55% of them citing recent unemployment increases.