Consumers reacting more to 'anticipated price shocks' from tariffs
US consumer sentiment dropped to 64.7 in the month of February, falling 7 points from the month prior, according to the final reading from the University of Michigan's index. Joanne Hsu, University of Michigan's Director of Surveys of Consumers, sits down with Seana Smith and Madison Mills for a conversation on what this print could indicate about inflation's path ahead. "It was a pretty large month over month increase for both short and long-run expectations. It's not necessarily cause for panic at this moment, but these expectations are clearly being driven by concerns over policy and concerns that tariffs are going to lead to price hikes," Hsu tells Yahoo Finance, who is also a research associate professor at the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research. "And it's very anticipatory on the basis of consumers," she adds, going on to weigh in on how inflation data is lining up with political parties' own economic outlooks amid President Trump's latest tariff agenda. To watch more expert insights and analysis on the latest market action, check out more Catalysts here. This post was written by Luke Carberry Mogan.
