Consumer Confidence

Consumer confidence sailed to its highest point since the 1960s this month, a widely followed survey said yesterday, but analysts questioned whether Americans will convert confidence to consumption at the mall.The Conference Board's consumer confidence index jumped from 118.5 in April to 127.1 in May. That was far beyond the slight increase expected by Wall Street economists and the highest score since August 1969, when the federal government was booking one of its last budget surpluses and Congress was extending a tax surcharge to fight inflation.

WASHINGTON -- U.S. consumer confidence advanced unexpectedly and home resales surged to a record, suggesting that the economy could end the year on an unexpected high note, reports yesterday showed.The Conference Board's consumer confidence index rose to 128.3 in November, the third-highest reading this year. October's index, meantime, was revised up to 123.4 from an original estimate of 123.3. A comparable index from the University of Michigan also registered a gain this month, rising to 107.2 from 105.6 in October.

WASHINGTON -- U.S. sales of previously owned homes fell in April and consumer confidence edged lower this month, signs the economy may be throttling back from the heated pace it reached earlier this year.Existing home sales declined 2.5 percent to an annual rate of 4.77 million units last month, the National Association of Realtors reported yesterday.Also, the Conference Board said consumer confidence declined to 135.2 in May from 137.2 a month ago."The economy is cooling off in the second quarter," said Gary Thayer, senior economist at A.G. Edwards & Sons Inc. in St. Louis.

NEW YORK -- Consumer confidence in the U.S. economy fell this month for the fourth consecutive month amid concern over declining stock prices, a private industry group said yesterday.The Consumer Confidence index dropped to 130.1 from 134.2 in September, the New York-based Conference Board reported. That put the index 3.5 percent below a 30-year high of 139 in June and at its lowest level since January.The Dow Jones industrial average has fallen 9 percent since Aug. 25, just after Federal Reserve policy-makers raised interest rates for the second time in less than two months.

Stocks nose-dived on Wall Street yesterday as lackluster reports on industrial activity and consumer confidence, along with disappointing earnings news from technology bellwether IBM, sent financial markets plunging for the third day in a row. The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 191.24 points, or nearly 2 percent, to close at 10,087.51. It was the Dow's biggest one-day loss since May 2003. Yesterday also marked the Dow's third consecutive decline of more than 100 points - the first time that has happened since late January 2003 - as the widely watched indicator tumbled to its lowest level in nearly six months.

WASHINGTON - U.S. consumer confidence rose in January to the highest level in 12 months, pushing aside worries about unemployment amid hopes that the economy may pull out of recession by mid-year. The University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index registered 94.2 for this month, a number last exceeded in January 2001, after increasing to 88.8 in December. Analysts had expected the index to rise to 90. "Consumers are convinced that the economy will turn around soon," said Stephen Stanley, an economist at Greenwich Capital Markets Inc. in Greenwich, Conn.

WASHINGTON -- In signs that inflation will remain subdued, wage, salary, and benefit costs paid by U.S. employers rose at the slowest pace in a year during the third quarter, and consumer confidence in the economy weakened this month, reports showed yesterday.The Labor Department's employment cost index increased a smaller-than-expected 0.6 percent after rising 0.8 percent in the second quarter. Wages alone showed the smallest quarterly increase since the third quarter of 1992. Analysts had expected a 0.8 percent increase in third quarter labor costs.

Consumer confidence took its largest one-month leap in more than 20 years this month, suggesting a rosy outlook for the future, a survey for one of the nation's leading business organizations showed yesterday.But that does not mean that the typical consumer is rushing off to spend money and refloat the nation's economy, according to analysts.While economy watchers are eager to seize on optimistic reports, they cautioned that the end of the six-week war in the Persian Gulf on Feb. 27 might have injected too much optimism into the Conference Board's index.

Consumers' minds these days are about as jumbled as the racks at Filene's Basement at closing time. Consumer confidence took a sharp downward turn in August, according to a report by the Conference Board, a private research group. But just a day earlier, the Commerce Department reported spending was up slightly despite tepid job growth. The 32,000 jobs that employers added to payrolls in July was the smallest gain this year, and a sign to some that the economic engine had once again stalled.

A half-dozen major U.S. companies announced yesterday that they will work with a Washington attorney for Baltimore-based Piper & Marbury LLP to increase consumer confidence worldwide in shopping on the Internet.The companies, America Online Inc., Dell Computers Inc., International Business Machines Corp., Microsoft Corp., Time Warner Inc. and Visa U.S.A. Inc., want to establish a "predictable and stable" legal environment worldwide to ease international transactions on the World Wide Web, said Ron Plesser, the Piper attorney who will coordinate the group's efforts.