Via Reuters:
After a two-day meeting, the Federal Open Market Committee, the Fed's policy arm, also left the door open for more rate increases in a bid to keep a vigorous economy from overheating, as growth in Europe and Japan appears to be picking up.
Earlier the Conference Board, a private research firm, said its measure of consumer sentiment jumped to 107.2 from an upwardly revised 102.7 in February, beating Wall Street forecasts of only a modest gain.
ABC News adds this:
The Conference Board said that its consumer index shot up 4.5 points to 107.2, the highest level since May 2002, when the reading was 110.3. Analysts had expected a reading of 102.
The latest measure was up from a revised 102.7 in February, which was down 4.1 points from January and broke a three-month rebound from last year's Gulf hurricanes.
Not bad. Generally I don't get too worked up by consumer confidence numbers one way or the other, but the way this one surprised Wall Street and the fact that it is almost a 4 year high is worth noting in passing.
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