U.S. Consumer Confidence Sinks

U.S. consumer confidence sank in June amid the prolonged recession, retreating from an eight-month high the prior month, the Conference Board said Tuesday. The business research group said its consumer confidence index fell to 49.3 points in June from a revised 54.8 in May. Most analysts expected a much stronger reading of 55.3 points in the 100-point index. The latest number however remains higher than the April reading of 40.8, and is far better than the all-time bottom of 25.3 hit in February, the lowest level since tracking of the data began in 1967. The index is based on a monthly survey of 5,000 US households. The June index was based on data collected through June 23. Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2009