AP
The final reading on February consumer confidence from the University of Michigan came in at 95.4, better than expected.
Expectations were for consumer confidence to hold steady at around 94.0 from February's preliminary read.
This reading was down from January's reading of 98.1.
Richard Curtin, chief economist at the Survey of Consumers, said of the report:
Consumer optimism was affected by lower gas prices and an unusually harsh winter. The small overall decline from January still left consumer confidence at the highest levels in eight years. It is hard not to attribute the small February decline to the temporary impact of the harsh weather, as declines that occurred in the Northeast and Midwest were triple the average loss, while Southern residents grew more optimistic. Low gas prices had a larger impact on lower income households, narrowing the difference between low and high income households. The data indicate that total real personal consumption expenditures will grow at 3.3% during 2015.
More to come ...