Confidence among U.S. consumers rose this month to the highest since September, reinforcing signs that the worst recession in half a century is abating. The Reuters/University of Michigan final index of consumer sentiment increased to 68.7, more than forecast, from 65.1 in April. The preliminary reading for May was 67.9. Rising confidence limits the risk that consumer spending, the biggest part of the economy, will peter out after a rebound in the first quarter. Still, unemployment, already at a 25-year high, is forecast to keep climbing and home foreclosures are at a record, indicating a recovery will be slow to emerge. “While we cannot say that optimism reigns, it certainly is coming back,” Joel Naroff, president of Naroff Economic Advisors Inc. in Holland, Pennsylvania, said before the report. The report “creates the hope that consumer spending will start picking up this quarter.”

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