US: UoM Consumer Sentiment Index improves to 88.3 in April vs. 87.5 expected

• Consumer Confidence in the US continued to strengthen in April.
• US Dollar Index extends daily rally beyond 91.00.

The Consumer Sentiment Index in the US improved to 88.3 (final) in April from 84.9 in March, the University of Michigan's latest Surveys of Consumers showed on Friday. This reading came in better than the market expectation and the flash estimate of 87.5 and 86.5, respectively.

Further details of the publication revealed that the Current Economic Conditions Index improved to 97.2 from 93 and the Consumer Expectations Index edged higher to 82.7 from 79.7. Finally, the 1-year Inflation Outlook increased to 3.4% from 3.1%.

Assessing the data, "the renewed confidence is due to record federal stimulus spending, both recently passed and proposed, as well as the positive impact from a growing share of the population who are vaccinated," noted Surveys of Consumers chief economist, Richard Curtin. "The largest and most important change in April was that an all-time record number of consumers expected declines in the unemployment rate during the year ahead."

Market reaction

The US Dollar Index continued to push higher after this data and was last seen gaining 0.42% on the day at 91.02.