Consumer sentiment hits a 50‑year low
Recent analysis says American consumer sentiment plunged to its weakest reading in half a century, with commentators linking the drop to renewed policy uncertainty. The same coverage notes the S&P 500 briefly fell into correction territory in April before rebounding on hopes of a 90-day tariff pause, though volatility remained elevated. (webanditnews.com; webanditnews.com)
American consumer sentiment fell to 47.6 in early April, the lowest reading in the University of Michigan survey’s history since it began in 1952. (data.sca.isr.umich.edu; axios.com) The preliminary April reading came out Friday, April 10, after the index was 53.3 in March and 56.6 in February. Yahoo Finance said that left sentiment down 11% from March and 11% from a year earlier. (sca.isr.umich.edu; finance.yahoo.com) Consumer sentiment is a monthly survey of how households view their finances, jobs, prices, and buying conditions. The Michigan survey splits that into views of current conditions and expectations, and both weakened in March before April’s sharper drop. (sca.isr.umich.edu; data.sca.isr.umich.edu) Joanne Hsu, the survey’s director, said in March that declines showed up across age groups and political parties, with larger drops among middle- and higher-income households and people with stock holdings. She also said short-run economic expectations fell 14% and year-ahead personal-finance expectations dropped 10% in that report. (sca.isr.umich.edu) Inflation expectations also moved higher before the April collapse. In the March final report, year-ahead inflation expectations rose to 3.8% from 3.4% in February, the biggest one-month increase since April 2025, while long-run expectations were 3.2%. (sca.isr.umich.edu) Markets were swinging at the same time households were turning darker on the economy. President Donald Trump announced on April 9, 2025 that he would cut new tariff rates to 10% for most trading partners for 90 days, while raising tariffs on Chinese imports to 125%. (cnbc.com; whitehouse.gov) That tariff pause produced one of Wall Street’s biggest relief rallies of the past two decades. Reuters, via MarketScreener, reported the Standard and Poor’s 500 jumped 9.5% on April 9, 2025, its biggest one-day gain since 2008. (marketscreener.com; cnbc.com) The White House later said the United States suspended its 34% reciprocal tariff imposed on April 2, 2025 for 90 days but kept a 10% baseline during the pause. It also said the United States and China agreed in May 2025 to lower tariffs by 115% while retaining an additional 10% tariff. (whitehouse.gov) The gap between a stock rebound and collapsing sentiment is the point of this reading. Households can keep spending for a while even when they tell surveyors they feel worse, but sentiment this weak usually signals fear about prices, income, and job security rather than confidence in a quick return to normal. (axios.com; sca.isr.umich.edu) The next Michigan release will show whether April was a one-month shock or the start of a longer slide. For now, the clearest fact is that Americans have not felt this bad in the survey’s 74-year record. (data.sca.isr.umich.edu; thefiscaltimes.com)
