“Kitchen table issues.”

That’s what Americans are concerned about, not so much which Chavistas are in charge in Caracas.

The preliminary read on University of Michigan sentiment for January, released on Friday, was predictably poor, but at least managed to show a small improvement versus December and November.

At 54, the headline print beat estimates, albeit just barely. As the figure shows, we’re still bumping along near record lows.

Current conditions, which touched its worst levels in over four decades of data in November, managed a three-month high at 52.4, while the expectations gauge came in at 55, the best reading since August.

Again, these are still very poor readouts. I really can’t emphasize that enough.

There’s the chart. We’re (still) talking about some of the worst prints in the entire history of America’s foremost survey of household moods.

“Although consumers’ worries about tariffs appear to be gradually receding, they remain guarded about the overall strength of business conditions and labor markets,” survey director Joanne Hsu said Friday, adding that “more than 90% of interviews for this release were collected prior to the capture of Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela.”

I assume Hsu was tacitly suggesting the geopolitical bombshell could impact sentiment negatively. I doubt the Maduro news will have an impact at all, but it’s hard to imagine anyone other than the Cuban diaspora getting especially excited about Trump’s colonial ambitions in Venezuela.

Friday’s Michigan release showed inflation expectations unexpectedly firmed, sticking at 4.2% on the one-year horizon and moving two-tenths higher to 3.4% on the key medium- to long-term metric.

Taken with tepid hiring and what, green shoots aside, it’s fair to call a highly uncertain outlook, Friday’s sentiment data underscored the tenuous side of an economy which, according to the Atlanta Fed’s popular “nowcast,” is nevertheless tracking for a blockbuster Q4 overall growth print.

As the figure shows, that tracker still tips a >5% pace despite Friday’s disappointing jobs report and new construction data. What can you say? The vibecession lives on, I suppose.

“Everyone’s thinking we should shut the federal government down more often,” JonesTrading’s Mike O’Rourke quipped, of the already strong GDP tracking, which was bolstered further by trade figures released Thursday.

“If we weren’t living in a meme world it’d be ridiculous that we have an administration pushing for the Fed funds rate to be anywhere from 100 to 250bps lower,” O’Rourke added. “It’s hard to imagine that’s going to help the affordability crisis.”