Consumer confidence partially rebounded in May after five straight months of decline, according to a new survey from The Conference Board. However, concerns about tariffs continue to weigh on consumers' minds.
The Conference Board said its consumer confidence index increased to 98.0 in May, up from 85.7 in April.
The uptick comes eight weeks after President Trump's self-described "Liberation Day," when he announced plans for widespread tariffs.
Many of the tariffs he announced on April 2 are now paused, but the on-again, off-again tariff policies have created ripple effects across the economy and confusion for consumers trying to understand the implications.
The survey notes that about half of the responses for its May data were collected after the May 12 announcement on a pause on some tariffs for China.
"The rebound was already visible before the May 12 US-China trade deal but gained momentum afterwards," said senior economist at The Conference Board, Stephanie Guichard.
Associate professor of Economics at the University of Tampa Abby Hall cautioned against reading too much into a single month's improvement.
"A single data point doesn't necessarily tell us much," Hall said. "What we're really looking at is, well, what's the trend? And so, the trend that we have seen is a marked decline in consumer confidence over the last several months, and while this is a recovery, it is not by any means a full recovery."
The survey's Expectations Index, which looks at consumers' short-term outlook for income, business and workforce conditions, jumped 17.4 points to 72.8. That figure is still below the threshold of 80 which The Conference Board says signals a recession is ahead.
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This consumer confidence report is just the first in a series of economic indicators expected this week.
Wall Street is waiting for earnings reports from several major companies.
Nvidia will announce its first quarter earnings on Wednesday. Retails Macy's, Costco, and Best Buy will also announce earnings this week.
New data on the country's Gross Domestic Product for the first quarter and corporate profits are scheduled for release on Thursday.
Friday will bring fresh figures on personal income, spending and savings, as well as the University of Michigan's consumer confidence survey.
As for predicting what these indicators might show, Hall acknowledges it's tricky to know exactly what comes next.
"This week will certainly give us a better picture of what is going on in the overall economy," Hall said. "My guess would be that if you see consistency at the end of this week in terms of if (the indicators are) all trending in one direction or another direction, then we might be able to put some more confidence behind these numbers. ... We can't predict the future. One of the things that we can talk about, though, is that the current climate surrounding policy makes it very, very difficult not only for economists to assess what's going on, but also makes it difficult for us to put a lot of confidence in some of the numbers that we see."
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