Consumer Spending Rolls On Despite Their Gloomy Outlook

The Conference Board said its consumer confience index rose 0.6 point to 91.2 in June. A year ago it was at 95.2. Consumer attitudes fell are the Iran War caused oil and gas prices to spike, accelerating inflation and causing most Americans' inflation-adjusted incomes to decline. The index regularly topped 120 before the pandemic.

Americans have continued to spend. Most economists believe this is a result of two things: first, many – perhaps most – people are running up credit card debit; second, a relatively small group in upper income brackets are continuing heavy spending.

“Consumer confidence inched up in June as falling oil prices in recent weeks provided some relief to consumer inflation fears,” Dana Peterson, the Conference Board’s chief economists said in a statement. “Consumer appraisals of current business conditions were slightly more positive compared to last month. However, perceptions of the current labor market softened measurably.”

Gas prices are now falling – they spiked above $4.50 a gallon after the U.S.-Iran conflict began Feb. 28. The national averagee is now $3.85 a gallon, AAA says.

On the job front, the proportion of Americans who said jobs are "hard to get" rose to 22.5% from 19.8% the previous month.