Technical Analysis—Consumer Sentiment

Figure 1.  Consumer Sentiment Collapsing (Source: @SuburbanDrone)

 

University of Michigan: Consumer Sentiment Index

 

The University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index is a consumer confidence index published monthly by the University of Michigan. The index is normalized to have a value of 100 in the first quarter of 1966. Each month at least 500 telephone interviews are conducted of a contiguous United States sample. Fifty core questions are asked.

The February descent (see below) resulted from inflationary declines in personal finances, a near universal awareness of rising interest rates, falling confidence in the government's economic policies, and the most negative long term prospects for the economy in the past decade (see the chart).^[1]

Final Results for February 2022

	Feb	Jan	Feb	M-M	Y-Y
	2022	2022	2021	Change	Change
Index of Consumer Sentiment	62.8	67.2	76.8	-6.5%	-18.2%
Current Economic Conditions	68.2	72.0	86.2	-5.3%	-20.9%
Index of Consumer Expectations	59.4	64.1	70.7	-7.3%	-16.0%

Figure 2.  Correlation of $$UMCMENT and $SPX (03/09/2022; Courtesy of stockcharts.com)

Reference

1. Consumer Sentiment Index - University of Michigan (accessed on 03/09/2022)