Consumer confidence slid in July

NEW YORK, July 28 (UPI) -- U.S. consumer confidence declined in July for the second consecutive month, the Conference Board said Tuesday.

"Consumer confidence, which had rebounded strongly in late spring, has faded in the last two months," said Lynn Franco, director of the Conference Board Research Center.

The composite index, which assigns confidence levels of 1985 a value of 100, dropped from 49.3 in June to 46.6 in July. The Present Situation index fell from 25 to 23.4 in the month, while the Expectations Index, measuring confidence in the future, dropped from 65.5 to 62.

Respondents to the monthly survey of 5,000 U.S. adults were "quite pessimistic about the short-term outlook," with 46.3 percent indicating economic conditions were "bad" and 48.1 percent indicating jobs were "hard to get," the report said.