More bad luck........won't it ever stop? Probably not!
*****************************************************
Confidence Near a 2004 Low
By Dalia Sussman, ABCNews.com
N E W Y O R K - Consumer confidence treaded water this week near its 2004 low, perhaps pulled by competing economic trends — a better jobs picture on one hand, but high prices for items such as gasoline and milk on the other. The ABC News/Money magazine Consumer Comfort Index stands at -19 on its scale of +100 to -100. That’s about what it was last week, -18, but down eight points in the last three weeks and just three points from its lowest of the year, -22 in mid-March.
The ABC/Money index is 16 points down from its 2004 peak, -3 in mid-January; and 10 points below its long-term, weekly average since December 1985.
The federal government last week reported strong jobs gains in May, building on March and April advances for a total of 947,000 new jobs in the last three months. But on the negative side gasoline prices are averaging $2.03 a gallon, up 35 percent so far this year; and milk is $3.43 a gallon, up 12 percent.
Not coincidentally, 34 percent of Americans call it a good time to buy things, matching the fewest since March 2003, and 33 percent say the economy’s good, seven points below average. Fifty-four percent say their finances are OK, three points off the average.
Copyright 2004 ABC News. |
