ECONOMY ROARS – CONSUMER CONFIDENCE HITS A MAJOR HIGH – AT 1:52 A.M. ET:  The economy continues to produce good news.  We haven't seen numbers like this in years.  From MarketWatch: 

Consumer confidence in the U.S. is close to an all-time high.

The numbers: Americans are the most confident in the U.S. economy in 18 years and the level of optimism is not far from an all-time high, a closely followed survey shows.

The consumer confidence index climbed to 138.4 in September from a revised 134.7 in August, the Conference Board said Tuesday.

That’s the highest level since September 2000 — near the end of the Internet boom. It’s also close to the record peak of 144.7 set in May of the same year.

What happened: The present situation index, a measure of current conditions, edged up to 173.1 from 172.8. The future expectations index jumped to 115.3 from 109.3.

Americans expect business conditions to improve, and they say plenty of jobs are available. They also think their own finances will get better with incomes rising.

Big picture: The economy is still growing rapidly more than nine years after the end of the Great Recession. Even a widening trade rift with China, the imposition of tariffs and a Federal Reserve bent on raising U.S. interest rates have done little to slow the economy down.

COMMENT:  This with a midterm election barely more than a month away.  It should help the Republicans, but voters are fickle.  It will, though, give Republicans something to cheer about.

September 26, 2018