US consumer sentiment unexpectedly improves in April

The Michigan sentiment index rose to 65.7 from 59.4 in March, coming in well above consensus expectations for a reading of 59.0.

The expectations index increased to 64.1 in April from 54.3 the month before, while the current conditions index printed at 68.1 compared to 67.2.

Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, said the rebound in the stock market from mid-March likely explains most of jump in the headline index, which was driven by the expectations component, up 10.5 points to a three-month high.

"The hit to expectations from the invasion of Ukraine has reversed, more quickly than we expected, given that gas prices have retraced less than a quarter of the spike triggered by the war. The current conditions index rose only 0.9 points. Inflation expectations were unchanged at both the 12-month and 5/10-year horizons," he said.

"The Michigan index still looks weak relative to the Conference Board’s consumer confidence index, perhaps because it is more sensitive to people’s views of their own finances rather than the broader economy, and real wages have fallen over the past year. Note too that both measures have been much less reliable guides to the path of consumers’ spending in recent years than in the past."