Gas Prices Fall, Spurring Spending, And Lifting Consumer Confidence To Highest Mark In A Year

Booyah:

Lower gasoline prices encouraged Americans to spend more on clothing, furniture and building materials, and propelled consumer confidence to the highest level in more than a year.

The largest decline ever in gas-station receipts pushed overall retail sales down 0.4 percent in September, the Commerce Department said in Washington. Excluding service stations, purchases climbed 0.6 percent, three times the gain in August. The University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index jumped to 92.3 in October from 85.4 the prior month.

The pickup in sales supports the Federal Reserve's predictions that the expansion will survive a housing slump and pick up in coming months as gasoline prices retreat. Treasury notes weakened and the dollar rallied as traders speculated that the numbers diminish the chances the central bank will reduce interest rates early next year.

``The consumer is showing an extreme amount of resilience,'' said Anthony Chan, chief economist at JP Morgan Private Client Services in New York. ``It shows housing will not cripple the consumer. I see nothing to suggest the Fed will move away from its status quo.''

We'll see if this gets us to 12,000:

posted by Ace at 02:04 PM

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