Consumer Confidence Hits 3 Month High

Plus home prices remained unchanged, holding onto five months of gains. Looking up.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. consumer confidence improved more than expected in December, hitting a three-month high as job market pessimism eased and consumers' expectations reached a two-year high, according to a private report released on Tuesday. The Conference Board, an industry group, said its index of consumer attitudes rose to 52.9 in December from a revised 50.6 in November.

Employers see uptick in hiring in 2010

U.S. consumer confidence up for first time since 2007

Not bad, not at all. And if you throw in the 388k jobs saved or created, we could be in okay condition next year.

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Global consumer confidence is rebounding, and in the United States has risen for the first time since 2007, amid signs the world economy is picking up although spending is still restrained, a survey showed on Wednesday.

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In the United States and Europe, high unemployment continued to discourage spending on big-ticket items although confidence had improved as the worst appeared to be over for those economies, New York-based Nielsen said.

In the United States -- the world's biggest consumer market -- consumer sentiment rose from three months ago for the first time since early 2007.

Consumer sentiment soared in April

The head game's half the fight.

U.S. consumers felt more confident about the economy last month than at any time since the September failure of Lehman Brothers that pushed global banking to the brink of collapse, a survey showed on Friday.

The Reuters/University of Michigan Surveys of Consumers said its final index of confidence climbed to 65.1 in April from 57.3 in March. That was the highest since September 2008 and the biggest one-month increase since October 2006.

The April reading also marked the first yearly increase since July 2007. Economists polled by Reuters expected a slightly lower final reading of 61.9 for April.