U.S. Consumer Comfort Eases From a 13-Week High
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U.S. consumer sentiment cooled from a 13-week high, while remaining at an elevated level during the heart of the holiday-shopping season, figures from the Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index showed Thursday.
Even though it eased, the measure of consumer comfort for the latest reporting week was still the highest for any comparable period since 2000, suggesting holiday sales will be robust. Americans are embracing a rosier economic picture, record stock prices this month and an unemployment rate at an almost 17-year low. These reasons help explain why Federal Reserve policy makers raised their benchmark lending rate on Wednesday by a quarter percentage point to a target range of 1.25 percent to 1.5 percent.