\n After months of souring views driven in part by a surge in gas prices, Americans are feeling more and more optimistic about the economy, according to new data released Friday.\n <\/p>\n
\n Consumer sentiment rose this month from an earlier reading of 48.9 to a final reading of 49.5, the University of Michigan\u2019s latest survey showed.\n <\/p>\n
\n The initial reading<\/a> marked the first increase in sentiment since February, before the US-Israeli war with Iran pushed up global energy prices.\n <\/p>\n \n Prices at the pump reached near-historic highs after the Middle East conflict resulted in the near-closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a key waterway that allows for the flow of oil between continents. That led to two straight readings of record-low consumer sentiment as Americans devoted more of their budgets to gas.\n <\/p>\n \n Gas prices have dropped<\/a> in recent weeks as a fragile ceasefire mostly holds<\/a>, leading to a rebound in consumer sentiment.\n <\/p>\n \n But consumers are still significantly more downbeat on the economy compared to before the war started. University of Michigan data shows a 13% decline in sentiment compared to February.\n <\/p>\n \n Even with gas prices easing, higher costs still contribute to the negative feelings regarding the economy.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cFor the third straight month, over half of consumers spontaneously mentioned that high prices are weighing down their personal finances,\u201d University of Michigan surveys director Joanne Hsu noted.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After months of souring views driven in part by a surge in gas prices, Americans are feeling more…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":727511,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[28],"class_list":["post-727510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/727510","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=727510"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/727510\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/727511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=727510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=727510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=727510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}