Consumer confidence stronger than expected in January

In this article:

Yahoo Finance Live's Julie Hyman and Brian Sozzi break down the consumer confidence rating for January.

Video Transcript

BRIAN SOZZI: Julie, over to you, I'm getting some news, some breaking news, I should say, on consumer confidence.

JULIE HYMAN: Yeah, and it's better than estimated. So the Conference Board consumer confidence reading for January coming in here 113.8, that is better than the 111.2 that was estimated. The present situations part of the index also ticking higher, 148.2, although the expectations part of it falling month over month to 90.8.

I'm just looking at the Conference Board statement here, which is really interesting on a couple of fronts. First of all, the Conference Board pointing out the proportion of consumers planning to purchase homes, automobiles, major appliances, and vacations over the next six months all increased. What's also interesting, concerns about inflation declining.

They had hit a 13-year high the prior month, in December, and now coming down. Concerns about COVID-19 coming down as well. So all of that quite interesting here, especially given the last couple of days in the markets. Interesting to get this number that shows that consumers are feeling a little bit better here.

Current business conditions, it looks like are relatively strong here. Labor market assessment, though, are a little bit less favorable than they were in December. But overall, a relatively strong consumer confidence report, Soz.

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