As should be not be a surprise, the newest economic indicators are starting to show what the Wells Fargo Economics Group is calling "the bunker mentality," that took hold this month. And of course, consumers are on the front lines. But maybe they are holding up for now as the month-to-month drop in consumer confidence of 12.6 points, while big, is still less than the 20-point drop expected by the various services that report on this. And for this latest survey, the cutoff time for responses was well within the pandemic's heightened reporting period, but ahead of the news of the record jobless claims.

 

According to the group, "One explanation for the relatively modest decline is that perceptions of the strength of labor market are not in-sync with the most recent data. For example, the proportion of consumers who felt that jobs were plentiful stayed historically high at 44.9%."