An index of the buying climate fell to minus 50.9 from minus 47.1. Those people saying it was a good time to buy needed items dropped to 25% from 27% the previous week.
Improving Sales
J.C. Penney Co., Kohl's Corp. and Ross Stores Inc. were among retailers today reporting February same-store sales that topped analysts' estimates. Purchases at stores open at least a year climbed 6.4% at J.C. Penney, 5% at Kohl's and 3% at Ross, company data showed.
"We are encouraged by our solid start to the year," Michael Balmuth, chief executive officer of Pleasanton, California-based discounter Ross Stores, said in a statement. Even so, "the much more important March/April holiday selling period is still ahead."
The average price of regular gasoline at the pump jumped 20 cents to $3.37 a gallon in the week ended Feb. 27, according to AAA, the nation's biggest motoring organization. It was the biggest increase since the period ended Sept. 5, 2005, after Katrina slammed into New Orleans.
"The key question is what lies ahead for prices at the pump," Gary Langer, president of Langer Research Associates LLC in New York, which compiles the index for Bloomberg, said in a statement. "A long run-up will do far more damage than a short spurt."
Bernanke's View
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke echoed that view in testimony before Congress this week.
"Sustained rises in the prices of oil or other commodities would represent a threat both to economic growth and to overall price stability, particularly if they were to cause inflation expectations to become less well anchored," Bernanke told legislators in his semiannual comments on monetary policy.
Gasoline prices and the comfort index have shown a strong inverse correlation since 2004, according to calculations by Joseph Brusuelas, a senior economist at Bloomberg LP in New York. Additionally, changes in the four-week average of claims for jobless benefits have been in sync with the comfort gauge about 72% of the time.