Monthly increase is fourth biggest as tracked by the Conference Board
U.S. consumers are considerably less gloomy about the economy, as a key gauge of consumer confidence remained relatively weak despite a large increase in April, a private research group said Tuesday.
The consumer confidence index jumped to a reading of 39.2 in April from 26.9 in March, the Conference Board reported.
The 12.3-point month-to-month gain was the fourth-largest ever in the 32-year history of the survey. The index bottomed at 25.3 in February.
Economists had been expecting the index to rise about five points, to 30.5, for April, according to a survey conducted by MarketWatch.
Consumers were a little happier about the present situation than they were in March, but the big improvement came in the expectations index, which surged to 49.5 in April from 30.2 in March -- the biggest increase since the fall of Baghdad in the spring of 2003.
"The sharp increase in the expectations index suggests that consumers believe the economy is nearing a bottom," said Lynn Franco, director of consumer research for the group. "However, this index still remains below levels associated with strong economic growth."
The present situation index improved to 23.7 in April from 21.9 in March.
The percentage of consumers saying business conditions are "bad" fell to 45.7% from 51%, while the percentage saying conditions are "good" increased to 7.6% from 6.9%.
The percentage saying jobs are hard to get fell to 47.9% from 48.8%, while the percentage saying jobs are easy to get also fell, dropping to 4.5% from 4.7% -- pointing to further job losses.
The short-term outlook brightened, but consumers remain pessimistic overall. Those expecting conditions to improve in the next six months rose to 15.6% from 9.6%, while the percentage saying conditions will worsen further declined to 25.3% from 37.8%.
