Consumer confidence down again

Additionally, the Expectations Index, measuring how consumers feel about the future, dropped 5.7 points to 92. And the Present Situation Index, measuring consumer feelings about the current situation, fell from 95.3 to 94.2.

Lynn Franco, director of the Conference Board’s Consumer Research Center, attributed declining consumer confidence to “subdued expectations, as opposed to eroding present-day conditions.”

Consumers’ opinion of conditions over the next six months was decidedly more cautious. Those anticipating conditions to worsen increased from 9.4 to 10.3 percent, while those expecting business conditions to improve dropped a point to 20.6 percent.

The Consumer Confidence Survey is based on a representative sample of 5,000 U.S. households. The monthly survey is conducted by TNS NFO, a marketing information group based in Greenwich, Conn. The cutoff date for October results was Oct. 19.