American consumers felt more confident in August as their outlook for the future improved.
The Conference Board, a business research group, said Tuesday that its consumer confidence index rose to 103.3 in August from 101.9 in July.
The index measures both Americans’ assessment of current economic conditions and their outlook for the next six months.
The measure of Americans’ short-term expectations for income, business and the job market rose to 82.5. July's figure was revised up to 81.1 from its initial reading of 78.2, ending a five-month stretch below 80. A reading under 80 can signal a potential recession in the near future.
Consumers’ view of current conditions rose to 134.4 in August from 133.1 last month.
Consumer spending accounts for nearly 70% of U.S. economic activity and is closely watched by economists for signs how the American consumer is feeling.
Though the report's topline numbers all improved slightly from July, consumers continued to have mixed feelings about the economy.
"Consumers’ assessments of the current labor situation, while still positive, continued to weaken, and assessments of the labor market going forward were more pessimistic,” said Dana Peterson, the Conference Board's chief economist.
Peterson said that dreary view was likely spurred by the July jobs report, which showed slowing job growth and a rise in the unemployment rate to 4.3%.
On top of the weak July jobs data, the government reported last week that the U.S. economy added 818,000 fewer jobs from April 2023 through March this year than were originally reported. The revised total added to evidence that the job market has been steadily slowing.
Though inflation has largely receded from 2022 highs, the cost of essentials continues to chip away at American consumers' savings and optimism.
Write-in responses to the Conference Board's survey were still focused on prices and inflation, even as 12-month inflation expectations fell to their lowest level since March of 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic upended the U.S. economy.
The Federal Reserve began raising its benchmark lending rate in March of 2022 in an attempt to fight the inflation that took hold in the wake of the pandemic. Higher borrowing costs, combined with rising prices, had consumers in a foul mood for the better part of the past two years.
Some help could be on the way though. Fed officials have strongly suggested that an interest rate cut is coming at its September meeting, giving some relief to consumers and businesses.
A shopper considers a purchase in a Costco warehouse Thursday, Aug. 22, 2024, in Parker, Colo. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
FILE - A customer walks by No Boundaries merchandise at a Walmart Superstore in Secaucus, New Jersey, July 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday tapped Dr. Mehmet Oz, a former television talk show host and heart surgeon, to head the agency that oversees health insurance programs for millions of older, poor and disabled Americans. Trump also selected Wall Street executive Howard Lutnick to lead the Commerce Department as he fills out his Cabinet.
“Dr. Oz will be a leader in incentivizing Disease Prevention, so we get the best results in the World for every dollar we spend on Healthcare in our Great Country,” Trump said in a statement. “He will also cut waste and fraud within our Country’s most expensive Government Agency, which is a third of our Nation’s Healthcare spend, and a quarter of our entire National Budget.”
Oz, who ran a failed 2022 bid to represent Pennsylvania in the U.S. Senate, has been an outspoken supporter of Trump and in recent days expressed support for Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s nomination for the nation’s top health agency, the Department of Health and Human Services.
As the administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Oz would report to Kennedy.
“Americans need better research on healthy lifestyle choices from unbiased scientists, and @robertfkennedyjr can help as HHS secretary,” Oz said in an Instagram post last week, sharing a photo of him with Kennedy.
If confirmed by the Senate, Oz would be responsible for the programs — Medicaid, Medicare and the Affordable Care Act — that more than half the country relies on for health insurance.
Medicaid provides nearly-free health care coverage to millions of the poorest children and adults in the U.S. while Medicare gives older Americans and the disabled access to health insurance. The Affordable Care Act is the Obama-era program that offers health insurance plans to millions of Americans who do not qualify for government-assisted health insurance, but do not get insurance through their employer.
Trump has said he wants to overhaul the Affordable Care Act but has said he only has “concepts of a plan” for how that redesign would operate. During his first term in office, he tried unsuccessfully to scrap the program altogether. Last month, Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson promised that health care reform would be a big part of Trump's second term agenda.
Other Republicans have vowed to downsize Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act, after years of record enrollment during the Biden administration.
During his campaign for senate, Oz promised to expand Medicare Advantage, the private-run version of Medicare that has become increasingly popular but also a source of widespread fraud.
TV personality Oprah Winfrey helped launch Oz into fandom and fortune. After years of appearing on her show as a health expert, Oz landed a talk show of his own that aired for 13 seasons. Oz has been accused of hawking dubious medical treatments and products on his defunct TV show. And during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, he pressured government officials to make hydroxychloroquine widely available, despite unresolved questions about its safety and effectiveness.
He estimated his net worth to be between $100 million and $315 million, according to a federal financial disclosure he filed in 2022.
Democratic Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, the chamber's president pro tempore, said Tuesday in a statement that Oz, who has described himself as “strongly pro-life," was unqualified for the position.
“Dr. Oz has zero qualifications, pushes alarming pseudoscience, & holds extreme anti-abortion views,” she said in a post on X, formerly Twitter. “CMS is a critical agency & we need serious leaders to protect Americans’ health care and bring down costs —not TV hosts whose main qualification is their loyalty to Trump.”
Lutnick, meanwhile, will have a key role in carrying out Trump's plan to raise and enforce tariffs as commerce secretary, Trump said. Lutnick is a cryptocurrency enthusiast and head of brokerage and investment bank Cantor Fitzgerald.
Trump made the announcement on his social media platform, Truth Social. In the post, Trump said Lutnick “will lead our Tariff and Trade agenda, with additional direct responsibility for the Office of the United States Trade Representative."
Lutnick is a co-chair of Trump’s transition team, along with Linda McMahon, the former wrestling executive who previously led Trump’s Small Business Administration. Both are tasked with putting forward candidates for key roles in the next administration.
The nomination would put Lutnick in charge of a sprawling Cabinet agency that is involved in funding new computer chip factories, imposing trade restrictions, releasing economic data and monitoring the weather. It is also a position in which connections to CEOs and the wider business community are crucial.
An advocate for imposing wide-ranging tariffs, Lutnick told CNBC in September that “tariffs are an amazing tool for the president to use — we need to protect the American worker." Trump on the campaign trail proposed a 60% tariff on goods from China — and a tariff of up to 20% on everything else the United States imports.
Mainstream economists are generally skeptical of tariffs, considering them a mostly inefficient way for governments to raise money and promote prosperity.
Lutnick had been considered for treasury secretary, a role that has been at the center of high-profile jockeying within the Trump world. At the same time, the treasury position is closely watched in financial circles, where a disruptive nominee could have immediate negative consequences on the stock market, which Trump watches closely.
The news also comes after billionaire Elon Musk and others in Trump’s orbit called on Trump to dump previous front-runner for treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, in favor of Lutnick. Musk said in his post that “Bessent is a business-as-usual choice, whereas @howardlutnick will actually enact change.”
Lutnick joined Cantor Fitzgerald in 1983 and rose through the ranks to be appointed president and CEO in 1991. He also chairs financial technology company BGC Group, Inc. and the commercial real estate services firm Newmark Group, Inc.
Lutnick has donated to both Democrats and Republicans in the past, and once appeared on Trump’s NBC reality show, “The Apprentice.” He has become a part of the president-elect’s inner circle, and has shared the stage with Trump at events in the closing days of his campaign, including a rally at Madison Square Garden.
He came under criticism in the campaign’s final days for an interview with CNN in which he repeated Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s debunked criticisms of vaccines.
— Associated Press writer Matthew Perrone in Washington contributed.
FILE - Mehmet Oz visits the AW Driving School & License Testing Center in Allentown, Pa., Sept. 23, 2022. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)
