Bloomberg signs deal with UMichigan for consumer confidence data

Investors will no longer be able to get a sneak peek at the University of Michigan’s consumer confidence survey after the university agreed to allow Bloomberg LP to distribute the economic indicator starting next year, reports Brody Mullins of The Wall Street Journal.

Mullins writes, “Under the terms of the five-year contract, the university’s consumer confidence survey will be distributed each month by Bloomberg to its clients through a news story about the survey results. At the same time, the university will release the survey’s findings on its website.

“Bloomberg, which will take over distribution of the consumer confidence survey from Thomson Reuters Corp. in January 2015, said it would end the practice of charging investors a fee in exchange for an advanced copy of the survey.

“‘This agreement ensures that we will be able to maintain the high quality of these surveys for the foreseeable future, and supports our strong commitment to open access to research data,’ said James Jackson, the director of the university’s Institute for Social Research, which produces the monthly survey.

“The new arrangement comes after a Page One article in The Wall Street Journal last year described how the University of Michigan and several other entities that produce market-moving surveys often sell an early look at the results to investors.

“Under the previous contract, Thomson Reuters paid more than $1 million a year to be the exclusive distributor of the University of Michigan’s survey results. Reuters charged investors more than $5,000 a month to get the results before they were made more broadly available.”

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