"Overall economic activity continued to expand in September, although many districts described the pace of growth as 'modest' or 'slight,'" the central bank said. Conditions in the labor market were "little changed, on balance, in September" and several districts saw "only limited and selective demand for new hires."
Bernanke this month told a congressional committee that the two-year-old economic recovery is "close to faltering," while repeating his forecast for a pickup in growth.
The economy is holding up, reports showed yesterday. Housing starts jumped 15 percent last month to a 658,000 annual rate, the most since April 2010.
At the same time, stocks continue to gyrate, adding to Americans' worries about their wealth. Equities declined yesterday on concern about the strength of the U.S. economy and an impasse over European bailout talks. A day earlier, the benchmark gauge rose to the highest level since August.
Other data point to erosion in confidence. The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan preliminary index of consumer sentiment dropped in October as Americans' outlooks for the economy and their finances slumped to the lowest level since 1980.
Eden Prairie, Minnesota-based SuperValu Inc., the owner of Save-A-Lot and Albertsons grocery stores, is among companies affected by the "fragile" consumer and economic environment, according to Chief Executive Officer Craig Herkert.
"With recent headlines about the ongoing challenges facing today's consumer, it comes as no surprise that shoppers continue to show signs of thrift," Herkert said yesterday on a conference call with analysts. "Consumer confidence remains low and unemployment remains high. As long as Americans continue to express broad financial concerns, personal spending will be constrained."
The Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index is based on responses to telephone interviews with a random sample of 1,000 consumers aged 18 and over. Each week, 250 respondents are asked for their views on the economy, personal finances and buying climate; the percentage of negative responses is subtracted from the share of positive views and divided by three. The most recent reading is based on the average of responses over the previous four weeks.
The monthly expectations gauge is measured separately and reflects the responses of 500 households polled over the past two weeks.
The comfort index can range from 100, indicating every participant in the survey had a positive response to all three components, to minus 100, signaling all views were negative. The margin of error for the headline reading is 3 percentage points.