US: Consumer sentiment continued to move along high plateau established following Trump's election - UoM

The final reading of University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index eased to 97.1 from 97.7 and missed the market consensus of 97.5.

Key highlights from Surveys of Consumers chief economist, Richard Curtin's comments:

• Consumer sentiment has continued to move along the high plateau established following Trump's election. The final May figure was virtually unchanged from either earlier in May or the April reading. Indeed, the May figure was nearly identical with the December to May average of 97.3
• Since no major policies, such as healthcare, taxes, or infrastructure spending have yet been adopted, the partisan divide may reflect differences in policy preferences expressed as expected economic outcomes
• Despite the expected bounce back in spending in the current quarter, personal consumption is expected to advance by 2.3% in 2017