U.S. consumer confidence fell in February to 91.3 points, from January’s two-year high of 96.9, as fuel prices resumed their rise, according to a Reuters/University of Michigan report released today.
That lagged the median estimate of 93.5 in a Bloomberg News survey of 56 economists. “Employment growth looks solid and consumer spending is still holding up at decent levels, so there’s nothing to suggest spending is going fall off,” Brian Bethune, an economist at Global Insight Inc. in Lexington, Mass., had told Bloomberg before the report.
The Reuters/University of Michigan Surveys of Consumers’ sentiment index averaged 87.3 last year. Its February decline is at odds with the better-known Conference Board report, earlier this week, that showed consumer confidence rising last month to the highest level in five years.
Additional information is available at today.reuters.com.
