POLL: Confidence Gains; Ahead of the Woe?

Sept. 16, 2008— -- Consumer confidence advanced this week, in polling completed before both Wall Street's latest turmoil and the latest hurricane-inspired gas price shock.

ABC's Consumer Comfort Index gained 6 points this week to stand at -41 on its scale of +100 to -100; it's increased this far in a week only nine times before. That may have reflected easing energy prices and a drop in inflation in August.

How it holds up remains to be seen, given the Lehman Brothers' bankruptcy filing, the Merrill Lynch sale, concerns about the stability of other institutions and the stock market's 504-point skid on Monday.

The market, though, recovered by about 140 points today. And while gasoline prices spiked 19 cents this week, that could pull back as refineries recover from Hurricane Ike, which slammed into Texas on Saturday. Gas had been easing the past two months.

The CCI is hardly good – still 10 points from its lowest, -51 in May. Just 17 percent rate the national economy positively, a quarter say it's a good time to buy things and 47 percent – still under half – say that their own finances are good.

EXPECTATIONS – In a separate monthly measure, just 13 percent say the economy is improving; 52 percent say it's getting worse and 34 percent think it's staying the same. While negative overall, that level of pessimism is its lowest since a year ago. At the same time, a net of 86 percent say the economy's either staying the same or getting worse – a bleak outlook, since so few say it's good to begin with.

INDEX – The CCI is based on Americans' ratings of their current finances, the national economy and the buying climate. It's the eighth straight week that fewer than half have rated their own finances positively; at 47 percent this measure is 5 points from its record low in March 1993.

Ratings of the economy are down 14 points from the start of the year and a far cry from the long-term average of 39 percent, although up from their recent low, 10 percent in early August. Twenty-five percent call it a good time to buy things, 13 points below the average in weekly polls since late 1985.