Inflation Expectations Hit Record Highs As Conference Board Survey ‘Hope’ Crashes To 8-Year-Lows

After an unexpected rebound for the last three months of 2021, The Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence survey weakened in January and February (amid surging cases of Omicron and higher-and-higher consumer prices) and was expected to fall further in March. Analysts were wrong in direction (thanks to a revision) as March Conf Board confidence rose from 105.7 (revised lower from 110.5) to 107.2, just above the 107.0 expectations.

While President Conditions improved, Future Expectations crashed to their lowest since Feb 2014…

Source: Bloomberg

For some reason, the respondents to The Conference Board still seems far more optimistic than the respondents to The University of Michigan‘s survey? It wouldn’t be the first time the Conf Board completely decoupled only to crash back to reality…

Source: Bloomberg

The share of consumers who said jobs were “plentiful” relative to “hard to get” rose slightly in February, continuing to hover very close to its record highs in 2000.

And finally, and perhaps most importantly, inflation expectations rose in March to a record high at 7.9%…

So Powell and his pals face weakening sentiment but worrisome inflation.