New Delhi, July 30 -- NEW YORK - The households that have absorbed elevated prices and high borrowing costs without pulling back dramatically on spending showed signs this month that their patience is thinning. The Conference Board's Consumer Confidence Index fell to 90.8 in July, down 1.4 points from a revised 92.2 in June, in a reading that exposed a widening gap between how Americans feel about conditions right now and what they expect to face six months from now.

The headline decline was modest. The breakdown was harder to dismiss. The Present Situation Index, which captures how consumers assess current business and labor conditions rather than forecasts, dropped 3.6 points to 114.9, a steeper fall than the composite number suggested...