The consumer confidence reading that came out yesterday was surprisingly high, with February showing the first monthly increase in four months. Consumer confidence is now at its highest point since November 2011.
There are other figures just out that point up why consumers might be feeling positive about the economy:
* Sales of new homes jumped up in January by the most in two decades. The number of home sales increased by 15.6 percent for the month, putting the annualized total at the highest it's been since July 2008.
* The Federal Reserve reported that American banks earned $141.3 billion in net income last year, which was their second-biggest year on record, after 2006. The amount of money they set aside to cover bad loans dropped by nearly 25 percent. There's no doubt that the banking sector is now in a very healthy place.
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