Increasing Consumer Confidence
The Conference Board's index of Consumer Confidence improved to 49.5% from a considerably upwardly revised level of 48.7 in October. Originally, the October level was at 47.5%. Consensus expectations were for the consumer confidence level to actually fall to 47.5%. The index saw a big upturn from dismal levels during the spring, but since May consumer confidence has roughly hovered within a few points of 50.