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Strategies & Market Trends : VOLTAIRE'S PORCH-MODERATED -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jim Willie CB who wrote (39433)	7/27/2001 11:35:16 AM
From: stockman_scott	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 65232

Consumer Sentiment Edges Lower in July Friday July 27 By Ross Finley NEW YORK (Reuters) - Faced by a steady drumbeat of corporate layoffs and a flat stock market, Americans' current financial picture deteriorated in July, dragging down a key measure of U.S. consumer confidence, a Friday report showed. The University of Michigan's final July consumer sentiment index edged down to 92.4 from 92.6 in June, but was well above a five-year low of 90.6 struck in February. The preliminary index, released mid-month to subscribers only, read 93.7; economists had forecast the final index to read 93.6. The current conditions index, a gauge of how comfortable consumers feel about their current financial picture, fell sharply to 98.6 from 101.6 in June, and was down from the preliminary reading, which was 100.2. But the expectations component of the index, which measures consumers' attitudes about the year ahead, rose to 88.4 from 86.9 in June. The preliminary reading was 89.5. ``In short, the recovery scenario is still in place with expectations higher than in June even as current conditions seem worse to the consumer,'' said Drew Matus, economist at Lehman Brothers, in a research note. U.S. Treasury securities, which rallied after an earlier report showing sluggish economic growth in the second quarter, extended their gains after the data were released. The Dow Jones industrial average dipped while the dollar mostly shrugged off the report. Consumer confidence has mostly stabilized from a sharp slide early this year as hopes that six Federal Reserve interest rate cuts and U.S. tax cut refund checks will help boost an economy that grew at only a 0.7 percent annualized pace in the second quarter. ``We will want to watch the preliminary report for August to see if there is any confidence effect from the tax rebate checks/announcement mailings,'' Matus said. The University of Michigan's consumer sentiment survey is conducted by telephone interviews with roughly 500 households every month, with a portion of the respondents called for the first time.