No Early Thaw for CCI

Despite some early signs of spring on the East Coast, consumer confidence is remarkably frozen.

The ABC News Consumer Comfort Index, -49 this week, has been iced in a 3-point range since early January, averaging -48 on its scale of +100 to -100 this year. That ties last year’s average, the worst in weekly polls since late 1985.

Indeed the CCI has averaged a dismal -47 the past two years, and in the past 15 months it’s held within one of its narrowest long-term bands on record. It’s shown less deviation from its average in a five-quarter period just once, under very different circumstances – in 1998-99, near the height of the tech boom.

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