Consumer Confidence Index
April's Consumer Confidence Index (CCI) was posted at 10:00 AM ET. The Conference Board announced a reading of 97.0 that was much lower than the expected 103.7 and a large drop from March’s revised 103.1. Waning confidence usually translates into weaker consumer spending numbers that make up such a large portion of the U.S. economy. Therefore, we can consider this data to be favorable for bonds and mortgage rates. Unfortunately, traders seem to be more focused on the inflation-related news than this confidence reading.