February Univ of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Prelim

February Univ. of Michigan Consumer Sentiment - Prelim
Updated: 06-Feb-26 10:17 ET

Highlights

The preliminary final University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment reading for February increased to 57.3 (Briefing.com consensus: 54.3) from the final reading of 56.4 for January.
In the same period a year ago, the index stood at 64.7.

Key Factors

The Current Economic Conditions Index jumped to 58.3 from the final reading of 55.4 for January. In the same period a year ago, the index stood at 65.7.
The Index of Consumer Expectations slipped to 56.6 from the final reading of 57.0 for January. In the same period a year ago, the index stood at 64.0.
Year-ahead inflation expectations dropped to 3.5% from the final reading of 4.0% for January.
Long-run inflation expectations edged up to 3.4% from the final reading of 3.3% for January.

Big Picture

The key takeaway from the report is that there was a surge in sentiment among consumers with the largest stock portfolios, whereas it remained at "dismal levels" for consumers without stock holdings. [Note: interviews for this release ended this past Monday, so with steep losses in many tech stocks since then, there is a good chance of a downward revision when the final report is released on February 20, barring a sustained rebound effort.]