It was announced today that the Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index® increased in October, and the increase—though slight—beat the expectations of analysts. To read the full report, visit the website.
Combining the consumer confidence results with yesterday’s data about increasing existing home sales, investors should have been buoyed. But the deceleration in home pricing growth rates during the month of August reflected on the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index (read the full report here) may have been adversely affecting investors because trading on Tuesday was choppy with the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropping as many as 75 points during the morning hours.
By market close, the Dow had recovered and rose a total of 5.11 points to 11,169.16. The Nasdaq climbed 6.44 points to 2,497.29 and the S&P 500 gained 0.03 points to 1,185.65.
European and Asian markets were all down today, even as the GFK Group shared the results of their Consumer Climate Survey for October 2010 (which you can read here). The survey showed that German citizens’ economic expectations had improved over the month of October, although their income expectations and likelihood of making purchases had fallen.
Stocks in the news: Advanced Micro Devices Inc (NYSE: AMD), Coach Incorporated (NYSE: COH), Regions Financial Corp (NYSE: RF).
