7 Stocks to Sell When Consumer Confidence Is Falling An economic recession is looking increasingly likely and it’s time to look around for stocks to sell. A majority of economists (72%) polled by the National Association of Business Economics say they expect the U.S. to enter a recession by the middle of next year. By some measures, the U.S. is already in a recession , popularly defined as two consecutive quarters of negative economic growth. This is bad news for consumers and businesses. Consumers, who are already feeling the impact of inflation that is running at 8.5% and higher interest rates used to dampen it are likely to batten down the hatches should the economy turn negative and companies begin mass layoffs. There are already signs that consumers are beginning to roll over. According to the U.S. Commerce Department, consumer spending rose a tepid 0.1% in June after falling 0.3% in May. Should things worsen on the consumer front, it could spell bad news for the economy overall, and also for certain stocks that are reliant on robust consumer spending to keep their share prices elevated.