On July 5, 2017 Gallup released the poll results titled “Americans’ Confidence In Economy Remains at Low for the Year.”
Notable excerpts include:
Americans’ confidence in the economy remained at a 2017 low in June, with Gallup’s U.S. Economic Confidence Index averaging +3 for the second month in a row. Despite confidence lagging below January’s monthly record high of +11, June nonetheless marked the eighth consecutive month in which U.S. adults rated the economy positively.
Gallup’s U.S. Economic Confidence Index is the average of two components: how Americans rate current economic conditions and whether they believe the economy is improving or getting worse. The index has a theoretical maximum of +100 if all Americans were to say the economy is doing well and improving, and a theoretical minimum of -100 if all were to say the economy is doing poorly and getting worse.
Last week, Americans’ confidence in the economy averaged a score of 0, the first time in the 33 full weeks since the presidential election that the index’s weekly average was not positive. However, this may be more of a fluke than a harbinger — lower scores in the middle of the week dragged down the weekly average. They returned to previous levels by the end of the week.
also:
Last month, Americans continued to view current economic conditions positively, with 33% describing the economy as “excellent” or “good” compared with 23% describing it as “poor.” This leaves the current conditions component at +10 for June, identical to its performance in May.
For the third month in a row, however, a slightly larger share of Americans (49%) said the economy is “getting worse” than said it is “getting better” (45%). This puts the economic outlook component at -4 in June, in line with its May reading.
Here is an accompanying chart of the two components of the Gallup Economic Confidence Index, discussed above:
Here is an accompanying chart of the Gallup Economic Confidence Index:
_____
The Special Note summarizes my overall thoughts about our economic situation
SPX at 2432.54 as this post is written