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To: StanX Long who wrote (9343)	4/8/2003 10:11:06 PM
From: StanX Long	Respond to of 95639

Survey: Consumer Confidence Up in April Tue Apr 8,10:39 AM ET Add Business - Reuters to My Yahoo! story.news.yahoo.com NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. consumer confidence (news - web sites) rebounded in April even more sharply than after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the first published consumer sentiment survey based entirely on interviews taken after the start of the war in Iraq (news - web sites) showed on Tuesday. Investor's Business Daily and TechnoMetrica Market Intelligence said their monthly Economic Optimism index rose to 56.4, a 10-month high, from 48.8 the prior month. The index crossed the 50 barrier which separates optimism from pessimism and broke a slide that began in June 2002, after which it fell for eight of 10 months. In the current month, the index rose 15.5 percent. Following Sept. 11, 2001, it rose 10.6 percent to 57.6 percent, the report said. The survey found the war affecting consumer sentiment. "The 'rally effect' in economic confidence is even more impressive than what we saw in October 2001," said Raghavan Mayur, president of TIPP, a unit of TechnoMetrica Market Intelligence. "In the month after 9/11, Americans rallied behind the flag, which had a positive impact on their broader outlook." Views on the outcome of the war are lifting expectations. The share of those surveyed who believe the economy will go into a recession decreased to 19 percent in April from 26 percent in March, while the number who believe the war will help the economy increased to 33 percent from 26 percent. Forty percent think the economy will slow down, but not go into recession, the report said. People "feel that the war is going as expected or better than expected," Mayur said. "Consumers are still concerned about a tight job market and rising fuel costs hurting pocketbooks, but the net feeling is that they are hopeful the economic engine will gain momentum." TechnoMetrica says that its survey is the first reading of consumer confidence each month and that it predicts with 90 percent reliability monthly changes in the better known Conference Board (news - web sites) and University of Michigan surveys. In March, the University of Michigan consumer sentiment index plunged to 77.6, its lowest level since September 1993, from 79.9 in February. The Conference Board index mirrored the move, dropping to 62.5 in March, its lowest level since October 1993. The April Michigan survey is due out on Friday, and the Conference Board releases its report on April 29. The Economic Optimism survey is based on 900 interviews with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.3 percentage points. The poll is conducted during the first week of each month.