Today was all about confidence indicators:
In the US, the Conf Board's consumer confidence index slumped 7.5% mom to its lowest point since early 2014 - worse even than the lowest points of the first wave of coronavirus. (But is the survey's pessimism more important than the extraordinary surge in new home sales - up 36.3% mom to the highest since December 2006?)
In addition, we had consumer confidence from S Korea (about half confidence recovered from Covid's worst); and Germany's August Ifo survey, which showed the business climate index almost fully recovered from Covid's travails.
