Consumer confidence hits new low

Americans’ mood about the economy is darkening further this month, sending a widely watched barometer of consumer sentiment to a new low, says a private research group, as people worry about their jobs and watch their retirement funds dwindle. The Conference Board said its Consumer Confidence Index edged down to 37.7 from a revised 38.6 in December, lower than the 39 economists surveyed by Thomson Reuters had expected. In recent months the index has hit its lowest troughs since it began in 1967, and is hovering at less than half its level of January 2007, when it was 87.3. “It appears that consumers have begun the new year with the same degree of pessimism that they exhibited in the final months of 2008,” says Lynn Franco, director of the Conference Board Consumer Research Center. “Looking ahead, consumers remain quite pessimistic about the state of the economy and about their earnings.”