The percentage saying business conditions are “good” was virtually unchanged at 27.2%, while those who said business conditions are “bad” declined slightly from 18.9% to 18.5%.
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The Conference Board on Tuesday said that its consumer confidence index rose to 98.1 in January from 96.3 in December, the second straight monthly gain.
Economists had expected the index to edge down to 96.0 from the 96.5 originally reported for the previous month.
In the release, Lynn Franco, director of economic indicators at The Conference Board, said, “Consumers’ assessment of current conditions held steady, while their expectations for the next six months improved moderately”. But they grew more confident in the outlook in the six months ahead, with respondents in the survey ended Jan 14 anticipating slight improvement in business conditions, job prospects and income growth. That gauge climbed in January to a seven- month high, according to its preliminary reading.
Consumers’ appraisal of current conditions was relatively flat in January.
Turmoil on Wall Street isn’t bothering consumers, as confidence in January rose. The proportion claiming jobs are “plentiful” decreased from 24.2 percent to 22.8 percent, while those claiming jobs are “hard to get” declined to 23.4 percent from 24.5 percent.
Optimism about the short-term economic outlook and the labor market also improved slightly. The S&P/Case-Shiller index of property values increased 5.8 per cent in November from the same month a year earlier. From October through December, employers added a robust average of 284,000 jobs a month.
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The proportion of households expecting a rise in their incomes increased to 18.1, from 16.3. The reading signals that Americans are so far brushing off gyrations in the financial markets.
