Today's early release of the Reuters/University of Michigan Survey of Consumers for April indicated a decline in consumer sentiment from the prior month with a reading of 75.7 but improvement on an annual basis with the level increasing 8.45% above a year ago while one year inflation expectations eased to 3.4%.The Index of Consumer Expectations (a component of the Conference Board's Index of Leading Economic Indicators) climbed to 72.5, and the Current Economic Conditions Index declined to 80.6.
It's important to recognize that consumer sentiment has seriously eroded over the past few months with the current results remaining near levels not seen since 1980, a major indication that consumers are in the process of tightening even further on spending.