US consumer confidence little changed in July amid high prices

(Sharecast News) - US consumer confidence was little changed in July, for a third month in a row, the results of a closely followed survey showed. The University of Michigan's consumer confidence index for July slipped to 66.4 after a reading of 68.2 in June.

That was tad better than the preliminary reading of 66.0 published about a fortnight before.

Joanne Hsu, the survey's director, blamed the nearly unchanged confidence reading on the drag exerted by high prices on attitudes, especially among Americans with lower incomes.

"Labor market expectations remain relatively stable, providing continued support to consumer spending," she added.

"However, continued election uncertainty is likely to generate volatility in economic attitudes in the months ahead."

A gauge of inflation expectations for one year ahead fell to 2.9%, versus the 2.3-3.0% range seen in the two years prior to the pandemic.

Long-run inflation expectations were steady at 3.0%, versus the range of 2.2-2.6% observed in the two years before the pandemic.