{"id":483733,"date":"2026-02-22T11:28:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-22T11:28:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/483733\/"},"modified":"2026-02-22T11:28:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-22T11:28:14","slug":"consumer-sentiment-stagnates-with-growing-divide-between-haves-and-have-nots-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/483733\/","title":{"rendered":"Consumer sentiment stagnates with growing divide between haves and have-nots"},"content":{"rendered":"

(TNND) \u2014 Consumer sentiment is “treading water,” with a growing divide between the haves and the have-nots, according to Joanne Hsu, the director and chief economist of the University of Michigan Surveys of Consumers.<\/p>\n

Each month, Hsu and her team update an index of consumer sentiment<\/a>.<\/p>\n

February’s final reading, released Friday, came in at “56.6.”<\/p>\n

That\u2019s more than a 20% drop from where the index stood at the start of last year and far below the long-term average reading of around 85.<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s been essentially no change over the last couple of months.<\/p>\n

“It’s not really moving up. It’s not really moving down. It’s treading water,” Hsu said.<\/p>\n

Under the hood, Hsu said they did see some movement within certain population groups.<\/p>\n

February saw an increase in sentiment for consumers with the largest stock portfolios, given the strong performance in the markets.<\/p>\n

But she said that was balanced out by an equally sized drop in sentiment for people who don’t own any stock.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s been a lot made recently of the so-called K-shaped economy, in which lower-income people are disproportionately hurt by inflation while high-income households fare better.<\/p>\n

Hsu said that\u2019s actually nothing new in the economy. But she did say they\u2019re seeing the gap widen.<\/p>\n

Sentiment dropped early last year among all income levels as President Donald Trump unveiled his tariff plans.<\/p>\n

Since then, sentiment has rebounded for high-income people while it has continued to stagnate for lower-income folks.<\/p>\n

The pain of high prices and the weakening labor market continue to be the top drags on consumer sentiment, Hsu said.<\/p>\n

But wealthier people feel like they are better equipped to weather those challenges.<\/p>\n

\"FILE<\/p>\n

FILE – A customer shops at Kroger on January 22, 2026, in Little Rock, Arkansas. (Photo by Will Newton\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Bank of America Institute Senior Economist David Tinsley told The National News Desk a week ago<\/a> that the K-shaped economy appears to be hitting the middle class harder now.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s been there for a while, that gap, and we have noted it, but it’s getting wider,\u201d Tinsley said. \u201cAnd I think that’s the concern really. The economy for a long time was being driven by essentially higher- and middle-income households, but increasingly it’s being driven more and more by higher-income households, with the middle slowing. And that, in some respects, makes it a slightly more fragile picture, I would argue.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hsu said 46% of the University of Michigan survey respondents spontaneously mentioned high prices as a drag on their personal finances.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a high share of unsolicited responses for any singular topic, and it\u2019s particularly felt by lower- and middle-income people, she said. But Hsu said around a third of the wealthiest consumers were still mentioning prices this month.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt absolutely still registers for them,\u201d she said. \u201cIt might not be as painful, but when you ask them about their personal finances, it still comes up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over 40% of consumers spontaneously mentioned tariffs, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am really interested in what it’s going to look like after today,\u201d Hsu said, referring to the Supreme Court decision on Friday<\/a> that struck down Trump\u2019s authority to impose sweeping tariffs.<\/p>\n

Consumers point to tariffs as an upward pressure on prices, Hsu said. But she said policy uncertainty surrounding tariffs has also rattled consumers.<\/p>\n

The tariff-related responses on the University of Michigan survey going forward will largely depend on how much uncertainty was resolved by the Supreme Court decision, she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(TNND) \u2014 Consumer sentiment is “treading water,” with a growing divide between the haves and the have-nots, according…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":482755,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[28,101],"class_list":["post-483733","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483733","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=483733"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483733\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/482755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=483733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=483733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=483733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}