Consumer Confidence Falls Less Than Expected

- Consumer Confidence for August fell to 105.0 versus estimates of 104.0 and 111.9 in July.

BOTTOM LINE: Consumer Confidence fell less than economists expected in August, Bloomberg reported. Consumer Confidence is now back to levels seen in June, but still up from 100.2 hit in August of last year. The Present Conditions component of the index fell to 130.3 from 138.3 the prior month. Present Conditions are still well above the long-term average of 113.2. The Expectations component fell to 88.2 versus 94.4 in July. I still expect confidence to move back to cycle highs over the intermediate-term as the job market remains healthy, incomes continue to outpace inflation, inflation decelerates further, interest rates remain historically low, energy prices decline further, housing fears subside and stocks resume their major uptrend.