August Consumer Confidence from the Conference Board was a better than expected 54.1 vs the consensus of 47.9 and up from 47.4 in July. It’s the highest since May which at the time was the most since Aug ’08. Almost all of the improvement was in the Expectations component which rose about 10 points while the Present Situation rose just 1.6 points and remains just 3 points from its lowest level since 1983. Expectations are the highest since Oct ’07. The labor market answers showed improvement as those that said jobs were Plentiful rose .5 point and those that said jobs were Hard To Get fell 3.4 points with both back to the level of June. Those that said they plan to buy a home within 6 months rose .7 points to the most since May and those that said they plan to buy a car rose .4%, also the highest since May. One year inflation expectations fell .1% to 5.4%, the lowest since Feb ’08.
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