{"id":1565,"date":"2025-09-12T18:36:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-12T18:36:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/finzexpert.com\/blog\/u-s-consumer-sentiment-drops-to-lowest-point-since-may\/"},"modified":"2025-09-12T18:36:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-12T18:36:11","slug":"u-s-consumer-sentiment-drops-to-lowest-point-since-may","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/finzexpert.com\/blog\/u-s-consumer-sentiment-drops-to-lowest-point-since-may\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. consumer sentiment drops to lowest point since May"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div id=\"\">\n<p>Consumer sentiment continued to slide in September, falling to its lowest point since May, as\u00a0<span class=\"link\">tariffs seep into product prices<\/span>\u00a0and Americans start to spend more cautiously.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The University of Michigan&#8217;s preliminary September sentiment index, released Friday, declined 4.8% to 55.4 from 58.2 in August.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Consumers continue to note multiple vulnerabilities in the economy, with rising risks to business conditions, labor markets, and inflation. Likewise, consumers perceive risks to their pocketbooks as well,&#8221; Joanne Hsu, director of the Surveys of Consumers at U. of Michigan,\u00a0said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>Tariff policies are top of mind for many Americans, too, she said, noting that about 60% of consumers raised the topic in interviews.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Inflation expectations for the year remained steady at 4.8%. Consumers&#8217; long-run inflation expectations, however, rose for a second straight month to 3.9% in September, according to the survey, as consumers become aware of &#8220;what tariffs mean for them,&#8221; High Frequency Economics analysts said in a research note.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>A separate U. of Michigan report on trade policy and consumer spending found that most U.S. adults plan to spend less on goods that are subject to tariff-related price hikes. Just 24% of consumers surveyed said they expected to spend as usual on items that have large price increases, according to the August report.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The <span class=\"link\">corrosive uncertainty<\/span> surrounding tariffs, other economic policies and immigration, continues to weigh on consumer sentiment, High Frequency Economics analysts said in a research note. &#8220;Rising consumer prices and the reality of the consequences of tariffs are just starting to be felt by consumers. They are saying, &#8216;Ouch!'&#8221;\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Sentiment declined most among low-income households, who are most vulnerable to the effects of tariffs, which are a <span class=\"link\">regressive tax<\/span>. Such households &#8220;won&#8217;t benefit from recent equity gains and will feel the sticker shock of tariffs most acutely,&#8221; Oxford Economics analysts said in a research note. &#8220;We expect tariffs and fiscal policy changes will widen the bifurcation of American consumers.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>    <!-- data-recirc-source=\"queryly\" --><\/p>\n<aside class=\"component list recirculation component--type-recirculation \">\n        <\/aside>\n<p>    <!-- tags --><\/p>\n<div class=\"content-author\">\n      Megan  Cerullo<\/p>\n<div class=\"content-author__bio\">\n<div class=\"content-author__full-information\">\n<p class=\"content-author__text\">Megan Cerullo is a New York-based reporter for CBS MoneyWatch covering small business, workplace, health care, consumer spending and personal finance topics. She regularly appears on CBS News 24\/7 to discuss her reporting.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Consumer sentiment continued to slide in September, falling to its lowest point since May, as\u00a0tariffs seep into product prices\u00a0and Americans start to spend more cautiously.\u00a0 The University of Michigan&#8217;s preliminary September sentiment index, released Friday, declined 4.8% to 55.4 from 58.2 in August.\u00a0 &#8220;Consumers continue to note multiple vulnerabilities in the economy, with rising risks [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1566,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[1447,758,175,847,1448,272],"class_list":["post-1565","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-loan","tag-consumer","tag-drops","tag-lowest","tag-point","tag-sentiment","tag-u-s"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/finzexpert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1565","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/finzexpert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/finzexpert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finzexpert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finzexpert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1565"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/finzexpert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1565\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finzexpert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/finzexpert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finzexpert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finzexpert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}