By Gwynn Guilford

American consumers this week started to grow anxious about the coronavirus, according to the University of Michigan survey of consumer attitudes released Friday.

Though overall consumer views on the economy improved in February, one-fifth of consumers canvassed in the final two days of the survey--Feb. 24 and 25--period cited concerns about the coronavirus. That included the stock-market selloff and the Centers for Disease Control warning about the virus, though the data were too few to be statistically significant.

Today's release offers an incipient glimpse at the potential impact coronavirus-related fears could have on consumer demand, which drives nearly 70% of U.S. output.

"If the virus spreads into U.S. communities, consumers are likely to limit their exposure to stores, theaters, restaurants, sporting events, air travel, and the like," said Richard Curtin, the survey's chief economist. However, he added, "there is no reason to anticipate that consumers will engage in such extreme measures at this time."

Moreover, the impact on sentiment was nonetheless fairly modest: the Sentiment Index among consumers who did mention the virus in February was still fairly high, at just over 90.0, compared with 101.0 for the overall sample.

Based on responses gathered between Jan. 29 and Feb. 25, the survey is the first to capture nearly a full month of consumer views since Jan. 30, when the U.S. reported its first domestic case of person-to-person transmission of the coronavirus. However, the bulk of the data were collected before coronavirus fears triggered a stock-market selloff in late February. Overall, only 8% of respondents cited coronavirus in February, according to the survey.

Write to Gwynn Guilford at gwynn.guilford@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 28, 2020 12:14 ET (17:14 GMT)

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