2025-03-15
13 分钟US consumer sentiment hits its lowest level since 2022.
Plus, grocers try to hold prices steady as tariffs come for the produce aisle.
It's just a tough math for these guys, and some of them took losses last week on this.
And trying to figure out what to do with it has been really complicated for a lot of people in the supply chain.
And universities are scrambling to avoid becoming President Trump's next Target.
It's Friday, March 14th.
I'm Alex Osola for the Wall Street Journal.
This is the PM of what's news, the top headlines and business stories that move the world today.
Consumer sentiment sank this month.
The University of Michigan's closely watched index fell 11% to 57.9 in mid March from 64.7 last month.
That's the lowest level since November 2022 and was much weaker than economists expected compared with a year earlier.
Consumer sentiment is down 27%.
WSJ economics reporter Justin Lehart says that particularly worrisome was also a decline in the expectations component of the sentiment index, which fell 15%.
The expectations component of the University of Michigan sentiment index is really the most predictive when it comes to future spending, and we saw that expectations really deteriorated across the board.
Even Republicans were feeling less cheery.
It doesn't mean that people are going to stop spending just because they're feeling a little down.
However, you do have to be a little bit more worried about consumer spending in the months ahead than you might have been before this number came out.
Despite consumer sentiment, with a threat of a government shutdown receding, stocks wrapped up a tough week with a rally.
The dow rose about 1.7%, the S&P 500 added about 2%, and the Nasdaq led the way with a 2.6% gain.
As we've talked about before on the show, President Trump's rapidly changing trade policy is affecting goods from cars to champagne.