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The Conference Board's Consumer Confidence Index modestly declined to 117.2 from April’s revised level of 117.5.  The Present Situation Index, an assessment of current business and labor market conditions, increased to 144.3 from 131.9. The Consumer Expectations Index which measures the short-term outlook fell to 99.1 from 107.9. The percentage of consumers expecting business conditions to improve over the next six months fell to 30.3%, while those expecting business conditions to worsen rose to 14.8%. The survey showed some consumer pessimism about the labor market as the proportion expecting more jobs in the months ahead fell to 27.2% percent, while those anticipating fewer jobs rose to 17.3 percent% in May. The One-year Consumer Inflation Rate Expectations increased to 6.5% from 6.2% in April.

The US Energy Information Administration reported that US commercial crude oil stockpiles decreased by 1.66M barrels to 484.3M barrels for the week ending May 21. Crude oil refinery inputs averaged 15.2M barrels per day, an increase of 123,000 barrels per day as compared to the previous week’s average. The EIA reported that gasoline supply declined by 1.7M barrels, while distillate inventories fell by 3M barrels. Refineries operated at 87% of their operable capacity, as gasoline production declined to an average of 9.7M barrels per day. Crude oil imports came in at 6.3M barrels per day, a decrease of 138,000 barrels per day as compared to the previous week. Total commercial petroleum inventories dropped by 7.7M barrels last week.

The Department of Labor reported that for the week ending May 22^nd the seasonally adjusted initial jobless claims dropped to 406,000, down from the previous week’s unrevised 444,000. This is the fourth consecutive week of decline and the lowest level since March 14 2020’s 256,000 level. The 4-week moving average dropped by 46,000 to 458,750 – also the lowest level since March 2020.  Claims have dropped some 45% since the beginning of April. The number of jobless continuing to collect regular state unemployment benefits declined by 96,000 to 3.64M for the week ending May 15 and follows an increase of 98,000 in the previous week. The total number of people claiming benefits in all programs -- state and federal combined -- for the week ending May 8 decreased by 175,255 to 15.8M.