It didn’t last.

The surge in US consumer confidence triggered by the perception of a softer tariff stance from the Trump administration faded in June, data released on Tuesday suggested.

The headline print on the Conference Board’s gauge was just 93, down more than 5ppt from May and nowhere near the 100 consensus.

The figure’s a reminder: May’s surge was quite pronounced, a reflection of just how sensitive households are to the ebb and flow of tariff news.

Write-in responses for the survey suggested the trade war and its prospective impact on inflation and the economy “remained on top of consumers’ minds,” Conference Board senior economist Stephanie Guichard said, in the color accompanying the release.

Note that the expectations gauge, which matched the lowest levels since the financial crisis in April only to recover smartly last month, slipped to 69. 80’s the threshold below which a recession’s likely over the next 12 months, although that rule of thumb, like so many others, hasn’t proven especially useful post-pandemic.

Guichard went on to note that all three components of the expectations measure deteriorated this month. “Consumers were more pessimistic about business conditions and job availability, and optimism about future income prospects eroded slightly,” she remarked.

On the bright side, nearly 46% of households now expect stocks to rise over the next 12 months. That metric dipped to 37.6% following Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariff unveil, indicative of the most pessimistic outlook for US equity prices since late 2023.