US: UoM Consumer Sentiment Index edged lower to 95.5 in October’s final reading

• Consumer confidence in the US continued to improve in October.
• US Dollar Index is posting modest daily gains above 97.70.

According to the University of Michigan’s (UoM) Surveys of Consumers’ final results for October, consumer confidence continued to improve with the Index of Consumer Sentiment rising to 95.5  from 93.2  in September.

Although this reading came in worse than the previous estimate and the market expectation of 96, the US Dollar Index edged higher and was last up 0.1% on the day at 97.76.

Commenting on the data, “The overall level of consumer confidence has remained quite favorable and largely unchanged during the past few years. The October level was nearly identical to the 2019 average (95.6) and only a few Index-points below the average since the start of 2017 (97.0),” noted Surveys of Consumers chief economist, Richard Curtin. “The focus of consumers has been on income and job growth, while largely ignoring other news. The most spontaneous references were to the negative impact of tariffs, which fell to 27% in October from last month’s 36%; the impeachment inquiry totaled just 2% in October, less than the 5% who mentioned a negative impact from the GM strike.”