Consumer Confidence Climbs

Consumer confidence climbed last week to a more than two-month high as holiday-happy Americans registered their most upbeat assessments of the buying climate since April. The Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index rose to 43.6 in the week ended December 27 from 42.2 in the prior period. All three components, which also include attitudes about the national economy and personal finances, improved, boosting the year's final full-week reading above the 2015 average of 42.9. The measure of whether respondents viewed now as a good time to shop increased to 40.6, the highest since the week ended April 26, from 38.6 in the prior period.