Consumer Confidence Hits Four-Year High

The stock market is down again this morning, but not by much. We were actually positive for a few moments shortly after today’s open.

There was a mixed bag of economic news today. The best news was that the Consumer Confidence Index rose to 73.7 for November. That’s the highest reading since February 2008.

On the downside, there had been some initial optimism about a rescue deal for Greece, but now traders seem rather skeptical on the details.

Euro-area finance ministers cut the rates on loans made under the first bailout of Greece in May 2010. They also suspended interest payments for a decade on lending agreed under the country’s second bailout. The ministers outlined a plan for the Mediterranean nation to buy back its debt at distressed rates. They authorized Greece to receive a 34.4 billion-euro ($44.6 billion) loan installment in December.

“This has been a very difficult deal,” Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker told reporters in Brussels after chairing a 13-hour meeting that ended early today. “All initiatives decided upon today will bring Greece’s public debt clearly back on a sustainable path.”

The Case-Shiller index showed that home prices rose 3% year-over-year in September. That’s the biggest increase since 2010. The slow recovery in housing is clearly helping consumer sentiment. The Commerce Department also released a decent report on orders for durable goods.

Posted by on November 27th, 2012 at 10:40 am


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