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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: RetiredNow who wrote (251597)	9/16/2005 3:15:33 PM
From: tejek	Respond to of 1573926

Consumer Sentiment Takes Hit By Nat Worden TheStreet.com Staff Reporter 9/16/2005 10:42 AM EDT The first measure of consumer attitudes in the post-Katrina environment wasn't pretty. The University of Michigan reported Friday that its consumer sentiment index plunged to a 13-year low of 76.9 in a preliminary reading on September from the 89.1 recorded for August. Economists on Wall Street were expecting a milder drop to 85. A measure of consumers' assessment of current conditions dropped to 97.7 from 108.2 in August, while their expectations for the future plummeted to 63.6 from 76.9. Investors were already nervous about the strength of consumer spending going into the back half of 2005 as oil prices soared and retailers lowered expectations in their second-quarter earnings reports. Those concerns were exacerbated by the economic impacts of the hurricane, which caused even larger spikes in gas prices and prompted economists to cut estimates for employment and economic growth. Despite the negativity, Ian Shepherdson, chief U.S. economist with High Frequency Economics, said the dire outlook will likely be short-lived. "If these declines were part of the normal economic cycle, we would now call for a recession in the U.S.," Shepherdson said in a research note. "But they aren't. The index is responding to a shock, and we expect it quickly to rebound." thestreet.com