This morning te conference board consumer confidence number came lower than expected, at 46 vs. 55 expected (bloomberg survey).
“Stock market down, confidence down” I read somewhere… Probably. Those two data should have some level of correlation, as they are both related to the underlying strength of the US economy. Also, the wealth effect of increasing stock prices should have some impact on the American households confidence level:
Now the best correlation remains – very logically – with the US unemployment rates. The graph below charts the consumer confidence vs. the unemployment rate (inverted) :
Lesmaes 