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More grief! Consumer confidence drops in June

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How does the consumer feel about the economy? In a word, lousy. The Conference Board, an industry group, reported that consumer confidence dropped to 49.3 in June, from a reading of 54.8 in May. Economists had expected it to be 55.

Here's another piece of bad news. Only 17.4% of consumers felt that more jobs would appear in the coming months, also down from 19.3% in May.

With the rise of unemployment to 9.4%, a larger pool of workers are chasing fewer and fewer jobs, which is also a negative. The author of the article linked above feels that consumers are saying "less bad" is not good enough. They want to see tangible results before they buy into the notion that the economy is improving.

Delinquency rates for less risky mortgages more than doubled from a year ago. Prime mortgages 60 days past due climbed 2.9% from 1.1% in 2008, according the the Office of the Comptroller. John Dugan,Comptroller of the Currency, said: "I'm very concerned about the rise in delinquent mortgages and foreclosure actions."

There are some bright spots, however. Prices in 8 of 20 areas reporting cited higher prices, with Phoenix, Miami, and Las Vegas still underwater.

Do you feel that things are getting better?

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Last updated: November 27, 2009: 06:22 AM

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