The economy is strong and getting stronger, and most Americans haven't received their tax refund checks yet. Kerry's only hope is the war in Iraq goes very badly.
Consumer optimism exceeds forecasts
washingtontimes.com
NEW YORK (AP) — Consumer confidence soared past analysts' expectations this month, helped by a brightening job picture, the Conference Board reported yesterday. But economists said the employment growth must continue for Americans to remain optimistic and keep spending.
Meanwhile, home buyers motivated by low mortgage rates and the improved job climate propelled sales of previously owned homes in March to the second-best month on record.
Sales of existing homes was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 6.48 million last month, a 5.7 percent increase from February, according to the National Association of Realtors. This sales pace was second only to the all-time monthly high of 6.68 million recorded in September.
The Consumer Confidence Index rose to 92.9, up from a revised 88.5 in March, the New York-based Conference Board said — better than the 88.5 that analysts had expected.
The 4.4 percentage point increase was the largest rise from the previous month since a 10.8 percentage point increase in November.
But consumer confidence has been choppy. In March, the index was unchanged from the previous month, after rising to 97.7 in January.
The improvement this month was sparked by a more favorable assessment of current business and labor market conditions and increased optimism about the next six months, said Lynn Franco, director of the Conference Board's Consumer Research Center.
"The job market, which has a major impact on confidence, appears to be gaining strength," she said. "The percentage of consumers claiming jobs are hard to get is now at its lowest level since November 2002, and more consumers expect this trend to continue."
However, "we need to see continued job growth in order to expect continued increases in consumer confidence," Miss Franco cautioned.
The Present Situation indicator, a component of the index that measures consumers' assessment of current conditions, rose to 90.6 from 84.4. The Expectations Index, which gauges their outlook for six months from now, increased to 94.5 from 91.3.
Economists had been expecting sales to rise to a rate of about 6.20 million. |
