i didn't make a strong claim that they are declining right now, but sentiment really seems to have taken a dive in the past few weeks, which could be a leading

i didn't make a strong claim that they are declining right now, but sentiment really seems to have taken a dive in the past few weeks, which could be a leading indicator of a decline. (and your linked article is 9 months old talking about even older data so is not really relevant to the current state of affairs.)