US consumer sentiment deteriorates further in May

More from the article...

... "Tariffs were spontaneously mentioned by nearly three-quarters of consumers, up from almost 60% in April; uncertainty over trade policy continues to dominate consumers' thinking about the economy," said Surveys of Consumers Director Joanne Hsu. "Slight increases in sentiment this month for independents were offset by a 7% decline among Republicans."

Consumers' 12-month inflation expectations jumped to 7.3% from 6.5% in April.

Both Democrats and Republicans anticipated higher inflation in the near term. ...

#1 | Posted by LampLighter at 2025-05-16 12:30 PM | Reply

... U.S. import prices unexpectedly rose in April as a surge in the cost of capital goods offset cheaper energy products.

Import prices gained 0.1% last month after dropping 0.4% in March, the Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics said on Friday. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast import prices, which exclude tariffs, would decrease 0.4%. In the 12 months through April, import prices edged up 0.1%. ...

Imported fuel prices fell 2.6% in April after decreasing by 3.4% in March.

Food prices were unchanged after dipping 0.1% in the prior month.

Excluding fuels and food, import prices shot up 0.5%. That followed a 0.1% dip in March.

In the 12 months through March, the so-called core import prices increased 0.8%.

Prices for imported capital goods jumped 0.6%, while those of consumer goods excluding motor vehicles increased 0.3%. Prices for imported motor vehicles, parts and engines rose 0.2%. ...

#2 | Posted by LampLighter at 2025-05-16 12:34 PM | Reply

all that's good and all as your usual well written and sourced stuff
even though I don't buy mush of it.
BUT I spend lots of time surveying the internet.
--realizing that that is .,,what's the word ? empirical or informational research ?
people talking about high prices are in blue states....like
7-8 out of 10 times....that's an estimate.
--I'll read your "evidence" later.

#3 | Posted by shrimptacodan at 2025-05-16 05:10 PM | Reply

@#3 ... I spend lots of time surveying the internet. ...

The Univ of Michigan Consumer Sentiment survey is done on a daily basis, with the results tallied and released every two or three weeks. ( www.sca.isr.umich.edu )

A couple interesting results noted, but was not mentioned in the article (I heard it from Consumers Director Joanne Hsu when she was interviewed on BloombergTV)...

1) Consumer Sentiment seemed to rise in the last couple days of the surveys after Pres trump retreated from his 145% China tariffs.

2) The latest results are starting to show Republicans expressing an increasing concern about the economy going forward. That was new since the prior survey.

#4 | Posted by LampLighter at 2025-05-16 06:35 PM | Reply