As I have explained to readers before, the (various) "confidence" indices the propaganda machine has created are among the MOST silly of their lies.

First you fill the heads of sheep with the MOST OUTRAGEOUS "don't worry, be happy" lies. THEN you ask them how "confident" they are. Then you PRETEND that the confidence (based upon propaganda lies) actually MEANS SOMETHING.



Yes, it DOES mean something: the HIGHER the number the more GULLIBLE the sheep are at the moment. Hence I simply refer to any/all U.S. "consumer confidence" reports as "consumer gullibility" indices: the HIGHER the number, the more STUPID the sheep are behaving at that moment in time.

So WHY am I posting this in the "gold and silver" section (readers are asking themselves)? To reiterate what I have been telling people about the gold and silver markets: IGNORE the price-action in bullion - all that is RELEVANT are the events around us and how long the sheep keep BELIEVING THE LIES.

Thus it is obviously NOT a coincidence that we have the propaganda-machine BASHING gold because it's at a 4-month low on the SAME DAY it's gushing about how the GULLIBILITY of the sheep is at a four-YEAR high.

Put another way, if people are looking for a "prediction" on the gold/silver markets then here's one:

When we SEE these idiotic "consumer confidence" numbers plummet we'll ALSO see gold and silver moving in the OPPOSITE direction...





"Consumer Sentiment in U.S. Climbed in May to Four-Year High"

www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-11/consum...-four-year-high.html

Consumer confidence rose in May to the highest level in four years, indicating falling fuel costs are helping households look beyond a retreat in stocks and weaker employment growth.

The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan preliminary index of consumer sentiment climbed to 77.8, the highest since January 2008, from 76.4 the prior month. The gauge was projected to drop to 76, according to the median forecast of 68 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News.

Gasoline prices that have declined 21 cents from an almost one-year high may help household finances just as job growth slowed in April to weakest pace in five months. The extra income that comes from cheaper fuel may help consumers maintain the spending that accounts for 70 percent of the economy.

“Confidence has been boosted by lower gasoline prices, which has more than offset the stabilization in equity prices,” said Paul Dales, a senior U.S. economist at Capital Economics Ltd. in London who forecast sentiment would climb to a survey- high 78. “At the same time, perhaps the slowdown in the labor market we’ve seen in recent months has been a bit overblown, and in fact people are getting a bit more encouraged about the jobs outlook.”

Estimates in the Bloomberg survey ranged from 73.5 to 78. The index averaged 64.2 during the last recession and 89 in the five years before the 18-month economic slump that ended in June 2009.
Shares Trim Losses

The unexpected gain in confidence helped stocks trim earlier losses. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index rose 0.4 percent to 1,363.3 at 10:43 a.m. in New York. It dropped as much as 0.7 percent at the open after JPMorgan Chase & Co. said it had a $2 billion trading loss.

Today’s report runs counter to the Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index, which slumped last week to the lowest level since February as labor market growth lost steam.

The Michigan survey’s index of current conditions, which reflects Americans’ perceptions of their financial situation and whether they consider it a good time to buy big-ticket items like cars, climbed to 87.3, also a four-year high, from 82.9 the prior month.

The index of consumer expectations for six months from now, which more closely projects the direction of consumer spending, dropped to 71.7 from 72.3.

A saving grace may come from less expensive prices at the pump. The average price of a gallon of gasoline fell to $3.73 on May 10 from a peak this year of $3.94 in early April, according to AAA, the nation’s largest motoring organization.
Inflation Expectations

Consumers in today’s confidence report said they expect an inflation rate of 3.1 percent over the next 12 months, the lowest this year, compared with 3.2 percent in the prior survey.

Over the next five years, Americans expected a 3 percent rate of inflation, compared with a previously reported 2.9 percent in the previous report.

A weight on consumers’ view of the economy, employers added 115,000 new workers in April, the smallest number since October, according to figures from the Labor Department reported last week. The jobless rate also fell as people left the labor force.

“The U.S. economy is recovering but at a stubbornly slow pace,” Carl Camden, president and chief executive officer of Kelly Services Inc. (KELYA), a staffing agency, said during a May 9 earnings call. “Large companies still aren’t spending and adding jobs as quickly as would’ve been expected.”