With the week beginning with a much better than expected May Conference
Board consumer confidence # led by the future expectations component,
followed by Wednesday’s 2 point drop in the weekly ABC poll, today’s
final May U of Michigan confidence # was a touch better than expected at
68.7 and up from the preliminary reading of 67.9 and up from 65.1 in
April. It’s at the highest level since Sept ’08 but the breakdown
between current conditions and the outlook was mixed and somewhat
similar to the Conference Board # in that the ‘outlook’ felt better than
‘today’ did. While both components rose from the preliminary reading of
a few weeks ago, final current conditions fell from April BUT the
outlook rose to the highest level since Oct ’07.
