Some bright news for these United States of America as we head into the holiday weekend: Consumer confidence continues to trend stronger. Bloomberg's Consumer Comfort Index is now at the highest level it's been in ten weeks.
What's been fueling this trend - pun intended - is gas prices. Nationally, gas prices are down 11 percent in 2011. Here in New Jersey, the average price of a gallon of gasoline has dropped from $3.88 at its peak on May 11 to $3.54 right now.
The consumer confidence numbers move because of a lot of different factors, but there's one thing that always takes precedence: When gas prices go up, consumer confidence goes down. When gas prices go down, consumer confidence goes up. With a long Fourth of July weekend coming up, and many of us getting ready to go on driving trips, it's nice to have both those trends moving in the right direction.
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