Consumer confidence retreats - Houston Business Journal:

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Nationally, consumer confidence dropped sharply in cutting into three months of gains that had seen the overal index morethan double. The Conference Board'es Consumer Confidence Index fellby 5.5 pointss to 49.3 in June. Statewide, Florida’e consumer confidence index for June fell three points last monthto 68, the resulg of bad economic news including the bankruptchy of General Motors Corp., foreclosures and a spike in Florida’s unemploymen rate, according to a new Universitu of Florida poll.
While Floridians’ perceptiones of personal finances compared with a year ago is up threer points to 44 from a revised May readingyof 41, other perceptions were lower or the same as, last For example, perceptions of U.S. economic conditionsa over the next year fell seven pointsto 65, while perceptionz of whether it’s a good time to buy big-ticke t items fell nine points to 67. Perceptions of U.S. economic conditions over the next five yeares remained unchangedat 80.
"Moving forward, we do not expecty Florida consumer confidence to declinse much more over the next coupl eof months, barring some unforeseen changer here in Florida or Chris McCarty, director of UF’s Surveuy Research Center at the Bureau of Economic and Businesd Research, said in a news However, McCarty cautioned the recovery is expected to be long and unevehn for some sectors of the economy. "Withy the demise of longstanding financial institutionsx such as Lehman Brothers and manufacturing companiesw like Chryslerand GM, it is no longer businessz as usual," he said. The preliminary index for June was conductesd from430 responses.
It is benchmarked to so a value of 100 represents the same levekl of confidence forthat year.