American consumers showing more confidence in economy

United States consumer confidence rose in January, comfortably surpassing economists’ expectations, according to data released by the Conference Board.

After increasing in December, The Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Index was up moderately again in January, rising 1.8 points to 98.1.

The percentage of consumers saying business conditions are “good” was virtually unchanged at 27.2 percent, while those saying conditions are “bad” edged down to 18.5 percent from 18.9 percent.

Reflecting a moderate improvement in consumer expectations for the next six months, the expectations index climbed to 85.9 in January from 83.0 in December.

“The stronger-than-expected outturn for consumer confidence in January supports our expectations that consumption growth will rebound in the coming months from the soft patch in Q4”, Barclays analyst Jesse Hurwitz said in a client note.

Optimism about the short-term economic outlook and the labor market also improved slightly. The cutoff date for the preliminary results was January 14.

Tuesday’s report showed that the Present Situation Index was unchanged at 116.4.

A key measure of consumers’ attitudes was better than expected this month.

Pump prices have continued to tumble below $2 a gallon and USA employers added 292,000 jobs in December and an average 284,000 the past three months.

Those anticipating more jobs in the months ahead increased from 12.4 percent to 13.2 percent.

The proportion of consumers expecting their incomes to increase improved from 16.3 percent to 18.1 percent.

The Conference Board said 6.6 percent of survey respondents planned to buy a house in the next six months. Shares in energy and raw materials producers have plunged on mounting concern about the global economy.