\n The record-breaking government shutdown has left Americans feeling worse about the economic outlook. That\u2019s according to the latest University of Michigan consumer sentiment survey, which showed the index falling to 50.3 this month from 53.6 in October.\n <\/p>\n
\n It\u2019s the lowest level since June 2022, which marked the lowest reading on record since the survey\u2019s inception in the 1950s.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cWith the federal government shutdown dragging on for over a month, consumers are now expressing worries about potential negative consequences for the economy,\u201d Joanne Hsu, director of surveys of consumers at the University of Michigan, said in a statement.\n <\/p>\n
\n The drop this month represents a 6.2% decline from October and a 29.9% decline compared to last November. Meanwhile, economists polled by FactSet had been anticipating a slight improvement this month.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cThe index certainly looks like the economy is ready to roll over the proverbial cliff,\u201d Chris Rupkey, chief economist at FwdBonds, said in commentary issued Friday.\n <\/p>\n
\n The increased level of pessimism was \u201cwidespread\u201d across different ages, income levels and political affiliations, Hsu noted. The one notable exception was consumers who are heavily invested in the stock market. They reported an 11% improvement in sentiment as the stock market hangs near record highs.\n <\/p>\n
\n That group of consumers is crucial because they have \u201cthe biggest influence on the aggregate consumer spending data, so continued strength here is important for the resilience of the economy overall,\u201d Thomas Simmons, chief US economist at Jefferies, said in a note to clients Friday.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cHowever, that middle tercile is important too, and the decline in their sentiment appears to be intensifying. If this group is unable to continue to keep up their pace of spending, the top-line growth numbers may finally break from their above-trend pace,\u201d he said.\n <\/p>\n
\n This story is developing and will be updated.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The record-breaking government shutdown has left Americans feeling worse about the economic outlook. That\u2019s according to the latest…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":250160,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[84,1294,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-250159","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-economy","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=250159"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250159\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/250160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=250159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=250159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=250159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}