Confidence bounces, labor market answers improve, but where the car buyers?

By Peter Boockvar - March 30th, 2010, 10:32AM

Conference Board Consumer Confidence was 52.5, 1.5 pts higher than expected and up from 46.4 in Feb which plummeted 10 pts from Jan. The Present Situation rose to 26 from 21.7 but up only a touch from the Jan reading of 25.2. Expectations rose to 70.2 from 62.9 but are well below the Jan figure of 77.3. After falling to near its lowest level since ’92, those that said Business Conditions are good, rose back to its Jan level. Those that said Business was bad fell to the lowest since Nov ’09. The answers to the labor market questions did show some improvement. Those that said jobs were Plentiful rose .4 pts to 4.4 and matches the highest level since June ’09. Those that said jobs were Hard To Get fell 1.5 pts and to the lowest since Aug ’09. Those that plan to buy a home within 6 mo’s rose a hair, by .1 to 2.8, but that’s the highest since Aug ’09. Those who plan to buy a car however fell 1.5 pts to the lowest since at least 1967.

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Category: MacroNotes.

Comments

Please use the comments to demonstrate your own ignorance, unfamiliarity with empirical data, ability to repeat discredited memes, and lack of respect for scientific knowledge. Also, be sure to create straw men and argue against things I have neither said nor even implied. Any irrelevancies you can mention will also be appreciated. Lastly, kindly forgo all civility in your discourse . . . you are, after all, anonymous.

One Response to “Confidence bounces, labor market answers improve, but where the car buyers?”

ashpelham2 Says:
March 30th, 2010 at 12:13 pm
Car manufacturers need to focus their efforts on two fronts: gas mileage, which they are working on, and making cars more affordable, which I think they could care less about. It’s still the same old game of “Model X starting at 12,999 (as shown 36,599).” Give me basic options, give me super gas mileage, and you will sell cars that american’s think not of as investments (a depreciating asset), but rather as tools of utility.