Experts predict that the rate of credit-card losses could eventually surpass the jobless rate because of the compounding effects of the housing crisis and lackluster consumer confidence.
Yet several big foreign carmakers, including Toyota and Honda of Japan, are projecting that their sales in the United States will increase in the coming year in spite of the housing slump, high gas prices and lackluster consumer confidence.
That's a clear sign of lackluster investor confidence, since market dips would attract bargain hunters when the underlying sentiment is bullish.
Certainly, the Olympus scandal threatens to further undermine confidence in the lackluster Japanese stock market — already long out of favor with foreign investors for its chronic underperformance.
The news of MDLZ's possible acquisition of Campbell Soup Company's international business does not inspire much confidence, given CPB's lackluster ROIC of 5%.
So this figures to be a day for the world's top-ranked golfer to work on his game in an attempt to try to regain confidence after a string of lackluster performances in major tournaments.
"We are currently dealing with broad consumer uncertainty related to higher gasoline prices and a lackluster employment picture, which translates into uninspiring consumer confidence levels," Robert A. Eckert, the chief executive of Mattel, said.
The market, touching four-and-a-half-year lows, continued to be weighed down by lackluster prospects for the economy, the shadow of terrorism and eroding confidence in the integrity of corporate financial statements.
Economists and business groups, however, warn that even such lackluster growth could be derailed by a hit to business and consumer confidence from talk of a triple-dip recession.
Labor Party leader Jeremy Corbyn is hanging on to his job by a thread following a no-confidence vote by his Parliamentary colleagues angered by his lackluster support for the EU during the referendum campaign.
