The Conference Board’s reading on Consumer Confidence just popped to 39.2 for the month of April.  This is above a reading of 26.9 revised for March from a preliminary 26.0 reading.  We had estimates being 29.0 from Dow Jones and 30.0 from Bloomberg.  It seems that the stabilization of some economic data and this massive rise from the March lows in equities has trumped all of the worries about jobs.

The present situation index gained to 23.7 from 21.9 in March, but the expectations index rose to 49.5 in April from 30.2 in March.  That expectations index is the highest reading since September.  This is still in contraction territory.

The bulls will have to settle for the “less-bad is good” notion, for now.  Stocks were all in negative territory, but they are challenging the break-even line after the data.

JON C. OGG