Americans' sentiment is clearly bad, but the stock market is clearly not like that. This is usually not the case. Looking back at history, high stock prices have often been associated with happy consumers, and vice versa. Just how bad is consumer confidence? American sentiment has just reached some kind of milestone. On Friday, the University of Michigan reported that its consumer confidence index had fallen to its lowest level in more than 70 years of survey history. At the beginning of this year, consumer confidence was already low; the war in Iran broke out at the end of February, leading to a sharp rise in gasoline prices, and this indicator fell sharply. Prior to this year, the index's previous low was in June 2022, when inflation was at its highest level in decades. And the consumer confidence reading released on Friday was even 10% lower than the low at the time. “Prices are still extremely high, the labor market has clearly weakened over the past four years, and now we are in the midst of a war,” said Joanne Hsu, director of consumer research at the University of Michigan. “I don't think it would be a surprise for the index to fall below June 2022 levels.” However, looking at stock market performance alone, the S&P 500 index rose for the eighth consecutive week on Friday, while the Dow Jones index reached a record closing record high for the second consecutive trading day.

Americans' sentiment is clearly bad, but the stock market is clearly not like that. This is usually not the case. Looking back at history, high stock prices have often been associated with happy consumers, and vice versa. Just how bad is consumer confidence? American sentiment has just reached some kind of milestone. On Friday, the University of Michigan reported that its consumer confidence index had fallen to its lowest level in more than 70 years of survey history. At the beginning of this year, consumer confidence was already low; the war in Iran broke out at the end of February, leading to a sharp rise in gasoline prices, and this indicator fell sharply. Prior to this year, the index's previous low was in June 2022, when inflation was at its highest level in decades. And the consumer confidence reading released on Friday was even 10% lower than the low at the time. “Prices are still extremely high, the labor market has clearly weakened over the past four years, and now we are in the midst of a war,” said Joanne Hsu, director of consumer research at the University of Michigan. “I don't think it would be a surprise for the index to fall below June 2022 levels.” However, looking at stock market performance alone, the S&P 500 index rose for the eighth consecutive week on Friday, while the Dow Jones index reached a record closing record high for the second consecutive trading day.