The Consumer Comfort Index plateaued this week after six consecutive weeks of incremental gains and a record-breaking year-to-date advance. Each of its subindices held near its pandemic high.

The CCI stands at 54.4 on its 0-100 scale, just off its one-year high of 55.0 last week after a six-week, 6.4-point gain. This marks a pause in the CCI’s rapid advance since the start of the year – the largest January-to-April increase in 35 years of ongoing weekly data – as the pace of the country’s vaccination rollout slows and COVID-19 cases peak globally.

The index is up 11.2 points since early January and 19.7 points from its bottom in the pandemic last May. Still, it’s 8.6 points short of its pre-pandemic level and 12.9 points below its 20-year high last January.

Each of its gauges, based on Americans’ ratings of their personal finances, the national economy and the buying climate, similarly has stabilized since hitting pandemic peaks last week. That said, their pandemic recoveries have been uneven:

• At 66.3, the personal finances subindex is nearly fully recovered from its pandemic decline, just 2.3 points off its pre-pandemic level last March and 4.9 points short of its record high last January.
• The buying climate subindex, at 48.8, has recouped more than four-fifths of its pandemic losses, now 4.5 points short of its position last March and 10.6 points off its all-time high in early 2020.
• Further behind, the national economy subindex, at 48.2, is a broad 18.9 points below its pre-pandemic level and 23.1 points short of its 19-year peak last January. It’s recovered roughly three-fifths of its pandemic losses thus far.