Here at home, we saw several signs that the driver of our economy, the consumer, is also slowing; from weakening same store sales at Wal-Mart, decreased consumer confidence, a fall off in mortgage applications and a pullback in car sales and other durable goods.
A bigger-than-estimated decrease in consumer confidence helped fuel speculation of another round of quantitative easing.
Rising consumer confidence "decreases the odds for a 25-basis-point rate cut in June, and will entice speculators" to bet that prices will fall more as they expect fewer rate cuts, said Sadakichi Robbins, a fixed-income strategist at Bank Julius Baer.
As the economy weakens and consumer confidence decreases, savvy fashionistas will look for quick, easy ways to update their subdued wardrobes, instead of gaudy statement pieces that overwhelm a look.
The Conference Board's consumer confidence index decreased to 52.5, lower than the most pessimistic forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News and down from a revised 54.3 in November.
[C7.] Consumer Confidence Decreases The Conference Board reported that its index of consumer confidence fell unexpectedly, to 82.2 this month from 85.3 in October, but housing was a surprise bright spot in the economy in October, when sales of existing homes surged a 5.5percentt, according to the National Association of Realtors.
The Samsung Economic Research Institute, an economic forecaster loosely affiliated with the Samsung group, Korea's largest conglomerate, reported a slight decrease in a survey of consumer confidence going into the third quarter.
Investors paid little attention to an increase in housing starts, retail sales and consumer confidence and a decrease in first-time unemployment claims.
[C4.] Stocks Decrease Broadly Again Stocks plunged as investors responded to the consumer confidence report.
This is contrary to the fluctuating Dutch consumer confidence [ 34] and, according to the Dutch Health Care Consumer Panel, the declining confidence in Dutch hospitals: confidence decreased from 76% of the respondents in 2002 to 66% of the respondents in 2009 [ 35].
