Consumer confidence plunged to a nine-year low Tuesday, casting more gloom on the already uncertain holiday retail season.
“Without the likelihood of a pickup in consumer spending, an already weak economic recovery could weaken further,” said Lynn Franco of the Conference Board, the New York-based business group that conducts the monthly confidence survey. Franco called the outlook “fairly bleak.”
The decline marked the fourth consecutive weakening of the Conference Board’s confidence index. The index now stands at 79.4, down from 93.7 in September and well below its post-Sept. 11 low of 85.5.
The last time the index fell this far was in November 1993, when it stood at 71.9.
Yet for all the buildup about the confidence survey as an important real-time signal about fourth-quarter economic conditions, Wall Street seemed to shrug off the results. Major stock indexes fell early on the news, then rallied late to a narrowly mixed finish.
Economists said the survey detected consumers’ worries about a sluggish economic recovery, the prospect of war with Iraq and continuing fears over terrorism.
— Angela Shah, The Dallas Morning News (KRT)
