By Robert Schroeder, MarketWatch WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- Consumer confidence took its second consecutive monthly drop in July, the Conference Board reported Tuesday, underscoring still-gloomy sentiment about the U.S. economy. The index dropped to 46.6 in July from an unrevised 49.3 in June. In May, the confidence gauge stood at 54.8. The confidence measure was worse than expected. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch were expecting confidence to dip to 48.0 in July from the June reading. See Economic Calendar. The June and July declines follow rebounds of the index in the spring. Both the present situation index and the expectations measure declined, explained Lynn Franco, director of the Conference Board Consumer Research Center. "The decline in the present situation index was caused primarily by a worsening job market, as the percent of consumers claiming jobs are hard to get rose sharply," she said in a statement. The expectations index's drop was more the result of more consumers expecting no change in labor market and business conditions -- not an increase in the percent of consumers expecting conditions to worsen further, she explained. The present situation index dropped to 23.4 from 25.0 in June, while the expectations index fell to 62.0 from 65.5. In other economic news on Tuesday, U.S. home prices rose on a monthly basis for the first time since July 2006, according to the national Case-Shiller home price index. "This could be an indication that home price declines are finally stabilizing," said David Blitzer, chairman of the index committee for Standard & Poor's, which compiles the Case-Shiller index. The report followed a better-than-expected gain in new home sales for the month of June.

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