Investing.com - U.S. consumer confidence unexpectedly increased in November, bolstering optimism over the outlook for the consumption-driven economy, industry data showed on Tuesday.
In a report, the Conference Board, a market research group, said its index of consumer confidence unexpectedly rose to 129.5 this month from a reading of 126.2 (revised up from an initial 125.9) in October. That was its fifth consecutive month of gains and the highest level since November 2000.
Analysts had expected the index to fall to 124.0 in November.
Additionally, the Present Situation Index increased from 152.0 to 153.9, while the Expectations Index rose from 109.0 last month to 113.3.
“Consumers’ assessment of current conditions improved moderately, while their expectations regarding the short-term outlook improved more so, driven primarily by optimism of further improvements in the labor market,” Lynn Franco, director of Economic Indicators at The Conference Board, said.
“Consumers are entering the holiday season in very high spirits and foresee the economy expanding at a healthy pace into the early months of 2018,” she added.
The monthly Consumer Confidence Survey, based on a probability-design random sample, is conducted for The Conference Board by Nielsen, a leading global provider of information and analytics around what consumers buy and watch. The cutoff date for the preliminary results was November 14.
After the report, which was released simultaneously with the Richmond manufacturing index for the same month, EUR/USD was trading at 1.1882 from around 1.1885 ahead of the publication; GBP/USD was at 1.3262 from 1.3270 earlier; while USD/JPY was at 111.42 from 111.32 earlier.
The US dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, traded at 93.06compared to 93.01 prior to the release.
Meanwhile, U.S. stock markets were trading higher after the open. The Dow 30 rose 70 points, or 0.30%, the S&P 500 gained 7 points, or 0.27%, while the Nasdaq Composite traded up 8 points, or 0.11%.
Elsewhere, in the commodities market, gold futures traded at $1,291.10 a troy ounce, compared to $1,292.70 ahead of the data, while crude oil traded at $57.97 a barrel from $57.88 earlier.