{"id":362191,"date":"2026-03-28T04:46:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-28T04:46:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/362191\/"},"modified":"2026-03-28T04:46:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-28T04:46:09","slug":"consumer-confidence-drops-amid-rising-gas-prices-and-inflation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/362191\/","title":{"rendered":"Consumer Confidence Drops Amid Rising Gas Prices and Inflation"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tShoppers on their way to the mall are increasingly noticing prices at the gas station \u2014 and they\u2019re not liking what they see<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tMarch consumer confidence fell 6 percent from last month, slipping back to levels last seen in December, according to the University of Michigan\u2019s closely watched Surveys of Consumers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cDeclines were seen across age and political party,\u201d said Joanne Hsu, director of the Surveys of Consumers. \u201cConsumers with middle and higher incomes and stock wealth, buffeted by both escalating gas prices and volatile financial markets in the wake of the Iran conflict, exhibited particularly large drops in sentiment.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHsu said consumers\u2019 short-run economic outlook \u201cplunged\u201d 14 percent and that year-ahead expected personal finances sank by 10 percent, although long-run expectations were more subdued.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tConsumers \u2014 and the world \u2014 have been holding their breath since the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran Feb. 28, sparking a war that has slowed the global flow of oil and stoked uncertainty.<\/p>\n

\n\tAbout a third of the survey of consumer sentiment was completed before the war started. And Hsu said consumers interviewed after fighting began revealed higher inflation expectations.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tConsumers expect inflation to rise to 3.8 percent for the year ahead, up from 3.4 percent in February, the largest jump in almost a year. By comparison consumers pegged inflation at 2.3 percent to 3 percent in the two years before the pandemic.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tAs read in the Consumer Price Index, inflation rose 2.4 percent in February and has not topped 3 percent since May 2024.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhile uncertainty has ratcheted up, shoppers and brands seem to still be watching and testing the wind.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tA gallon of regular gas is selling for $3.98 on average, according to AAA. That\u2019s $1 more than a month earlier, with a price of $4 seen as psychologically important to consumers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tSo far, at least, the longer-term outlook is holding.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThe National Retail Federation recently forecast that U.S. retail sales would rise 4.4 percent to $5.6 trillion this year, up from the average of 3.6 percent over the past decade.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tBut Mark Mathews, chief economist of the NRF, did say that confidence was not expected to improve significantly.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWhile the geopolitical environment and ongoing trade policy challenges warrant close attention, we remain optimistic that the underlying fundamentals of the U.S. economy will support continued stability in the year ahead,\u201d Mathews said this month.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tEven if household finances hold despite price increases, the dynamic \u2014 with higher gas prices mixing with tariff increases and other macro trends \u2014 makes business harder all around.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tLululemon<\/a> Athletica Inc., for instance, is working on a comeback<\/a> and looking for a chief executive officer.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThe plan is to build back which includes easing off on discounting, improving the product and driving full-price sales.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tSales for the brand rose 6 percent last year, in constant currencies and excluding an extra week in the retail calendar in 2024.\u00a0This year, Lululemon<\/a> is looking for revenues to grow 2 percent to 4 percent to a range of $11.35 billion to $11.5 billion \u2014 with a 1 percent to 3 percent decline in the U.S.<\/p>\n

\n\tAsked on a conference call about shopper traffic and \u201chigh-value\u201d consumers, interim co-chief executive officer and chief financial officer Meghan Frank said she needed \u201ca little more time just to understand what\u2019s going on with the high-value guests.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe\u2019re seeing great green shoots on some of the new product launches,\u201d Frank said. \u201cAnd I would expect that extends to that guest as well. So we\u2019ll share more on what we\u2019re seeing as it progresses.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThings would likely progress a little quicker\u00a0 \u2014 for Lululemon and everyone else\u00a0 \u2014 if the idea of an \u201coil crisis\u201d wasn\u2019t in the air and gas prices remained in check.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Shoppers on their way to the mall are increasingly noticing prices at the gas station \u2014 and they\u2019re…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":336726,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[114,85,46,42867],"class_list":{"0":"post-362191","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-il","10":"tag-israel","11":"tag-lululemon"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362191","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=362191"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362191\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/336726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=362191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=362191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=362191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}