Forexpros – U.S. consumer confidence declined unexpectedly in May, moving lower after a slight decline the previous month, data on Tuesday showed.
In a report, the Conference Board, a market research group said its index of consumer confidence fell to 64.9 from a reading of 68.7 in April, whose figure was revised down from 69.2.
Analysts had expected the index to post a reading of 70.0 in May.
The Expectations Index declined to 77.6 from 80.4, while the Present Situation Index decreased to 45.9 from 51.2 last month.
Commenting on the report, Lynn Franco, Director of Economic Indicators at The Conference Board said “Consumers were less positive about current business and labor market conditions, and they were more pessimistic about the short-term outlook”.
Following the release of the data, the U.S. dollar remained fractionally higher against the euro, with EUR/USD dipping 0.07% to trade at 1.2532.
Meanwhile, U.S. equity markets were broadly higher after the open. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.99%, the S&P 500 index jumped 1.00%, while the Nasdaq Composite index gained 0.96%.
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