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Still, Ms. Franco said, consumers rate current conditions favorably.

Consumer Confidence Drops; Job Expectations Are Also Lower
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Consumer confidence soured in May, as Americans worried about the future of the economy and the outlook for jobs. A widely watched barometer of sentiment fell sharply, the most since hurricanes pummeled the Gulf Coast last year, increasing concern about future retail spending.

The Conference Board said yesterday that its consumer confidence index fell almost 7 points, to 103.2, from a revised reading of 109.8 in April. Still, the May index was better than the 100.9 expected by analysts.

The decline interrupted a rebound in the index that had been going on since November, after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

"Consumer confidence, which reached a four-year high in April, lost ground in May," Lynn Franco, director of the Conference Board Consumer Research Center, based in New York, said in a statement. "Apprehension about the short-term outlook for the economy, the labor market and consumers' earning potential has driven the expectations index down to levels not seen since the aftermath of the hurricanes."