Consumer Sentiment and Leading Indicators Show Different Takes

The University of Michigan consumer sentiment reading for the end of November, a revised number from earlier in the month, came out at 82.7, versus a prior reading of 84.9. That prior reading seemed a bit too rosy and this regrouped number looks more in-line with how the preliminary reading should have been. Bloomberg had a consensus estimate of 84.0 today, and the range was 81.0 to 87.5 from the economists surveyed.

The Conference Board also reported its leading indicators for the month of October today, and again these "leading indicators" are not as "leading" as you might guess by the name. For October this came to a gain of 0.2%, versus a Bloomberg consensus estimate of 0.2%. This was too much in-line to make much of a difference. The September leading indicators figure was up by 0.6% for a comparison.

With today's leading figure being right on the button and with the University of Michigan being revised slightly lower, we would consider these final reports before Thanksgiving mostly as a wash, even though the numbers were in different directions.

JON C. OGG

Filed under: 24/7 Wall St. Wire, Economy