Coronavirus slashes California consumer confidence in half

California consumer sentiment was cut in half as the full impact of “stay at home” coronavirus orders became known in late March, says the Chapman-CMC Consumer Sentiment Survey.
Pollsters doing the quarterly consumer survey noticed a sharp drop in optimism as the month wore on. When looking at responses from the week ended March 26, the confidence index stood at 51.5 vs. 96.9 three months earlier and 92 in 2019’s first quarter. For all of March, the Chapman-CMC index was 82.6.