US April consumer confidence 92.8 vs 89.0 expected

• Prior was 91.8

The April 2026 release, with a survey cutoff of April 22, came in noticeably stronger than expected. The headline index rose to 92.8, up from 91.8 in March and well ahead of consensus near 89.0 — extending a modest run of monthly gains and setting a new high for the year so far.

The internal detail was mixed. Consumers’ views of current business conditions softened: 22.0% called conditions “good” (up from 21.7%), but 17.9% called them “bad” (up from 15.8%). The labor market component improved, however, with 27.3% saying jobs were “plentiful” (vs. 27.4% in March) and the share saying jobs were “hard to get” falling to 19.8% from 21.3%.

Forward-looking measures were also crosscurrents. Consumers were a touch more pessimistic about future business conditions, with 23.6% expecting them to worsen (up from 21.4%). But the labor market outlook brightened — 16.1% expected more jobs ahead (up from 15.4%), and fewer expected job losses. Income expectations were modestly more optimistic, with the share expecting income declines easing to 12.3%

The Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Index (CCI) is one of the two flagship gauges of U.S. household sentiment, alongside the University of Michigan survey. Compiled from a monthly mail-and-online survey of roughly 3,000 households, it is published at 10:00 a.m. ET on the last Tuesday of each month and indexed to a 1985 = 100 base. The headline reading is built from five questions — two on present conditions and three on expectations — that feed into two sub-indexes: the Present Situation Index, which captures how consumers view current business and labor market conditions, and the Expectations Index, which tracks the six-month outlook for income, business, and jobs. A reading below 80 on the Expectations Index has historically signaled elevated recession risk within the next year. The Conference Board release is also closely watched for its labor market differential — the share of consumers saying jobs are “plentiful” minus the share saying jobs are “hard to get” — a leading indicator that tends to track the unemployment rate. Compared with the Michigan survey, the CCI is more sensitive to labor market conditions, while Michigan leans more on personal finances and inflation.

This article was written by Adam Button at investinglive.com.