"Economists are pessimists: they've predicted 8 of the last 3 depressions."
--Barry Asmus

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Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Consumer Confidence

As economic measures go, this is one of those big movers and shakers. Traders like to see good confidence numbers, because consumer spending is a large (roughly 30%-50%) component of GDP. And how did we do?
The Conference Board's press release shows that we did pretty well. The Consumer Confidence Index increased to 70.4 from January's 64.8, while the Present Situation Index increased to 33.4 (from January's 31.1) and the Expectations Index increased to 95.1 (from January's 87.3). All of which is a fancy way of saying that people are confident, moreso about the future than about how things look right now.
That 70.4, though? That's a three-year high. That's not bad at all.
Of course, with all the excitement about Libya right now, the Middle East is once again overwhelming any good news from home. So don't be too surprised if we don't see the markets pop on this news.
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