Consumer Confidence Plunges To December 2011 Levels, Biggest Miss To Expectations In 7 Years

Yesterday, UBS' Maury Harris released a naive note titled "UofM confidence bounce after tax deal?" which we did not understand: would the bounce be on the ongoing depression, the uncertainty over the debt ceiling, the fate of the sequester and coming spending cuts, the manipulated market which just saw a $610 million reserve injection via repo to be followed by another $1.5 liquidity injection via POMO, or the fact that everyone is now paying more taxes in 2013? Turns out the confusion was irrelevant as the preliminary January UMichigan consumer confidence number just printed at 71.3, far below the December final 72.9, and the biggest miss to expectations in seven years. It was also the lowest print since November 2011. And of course, the market's reaction is.... up.