Economic Sentiment Stabilizes

Michigan final sentiment and Conference Board confidence near pre War levels. But still 2.2 to 2.4 standard deviations below pre Trump. Gallup confidence 1.1 standard deviations below.

Figure 1: U.Michigan Economic Sentiment (blue), Conference Board Confidence Index (brown), Gallup Confidence level (green), all demeaned and divided by standard deviation 2021M01-2025m02. Orange dashed line at “Liberation Day”, purple dashed line at US Iran war start. Source: UMichigan, Gallup, Conference Board, and author’s calculations.

The rebound is — visually at least — seemingly driven by gas prices.

Figure 2: U.Michigan Consumer Sentiment (blue, left scale), price of gasoline, $/gallon (red, right log scale). Source: U.Michigan, EIA, and author’s calculations.

 

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