Consumer sentiment sours after Comey testimony, University of Michigan says

Consumer sentiment in the States soured in the wake of ex-Federal Bureau of Investigation chief James Comey's Senate testimony, the results of the most widely-followed gauge of the consumer climate revealed.

The University of Michigan's consumer confidence gauge retreated only modestly at the start of June, slipping to 94.5 from an end of May level 97.1.

That was worse than the consensus forecast for an unchanged print of 97.1.

However, according to Richard Curtin, the survey's chief economist, Friday's preliminary data masked a much larger drop since 8 June, when Comey testified.

Prior to that event consumer confidence had averaged 97.7 but had since falled to 86.7.

"Importantly, the decline was observed across all political parties, but the loss in confidence among self-identified Republicans since June 8th was larger than among Democrats (9.2 vs. 6.8 Index-points), with Independents showing the greatest falloff (11.5 Index-points)," Curtin said.

Fortunately, Curtin added, the strong labour market togethwer with higher household income and wealth had acted as an offset against the rising uncertainties.

A sub-index tracking how consumers saw current economic conditions decreased from 111.7 to 109.6, alongside a dip in the sub-index linked to their expectations.

The latter fell from 87.7 at the end of May to 84.7.

"Nonetheless, consumers have become less optimistic about the future course of the domestic economy. Even with the expected bounce back in spending in the current quarter, personal consumption is expected to advance by 2.3% for all of 2017."