[quote=Rich Toscano]I’m with DWCAP. Consumer confidence tends to just follow whatever the stock market is doing. [/quote]

Do you have any reason to believe that the stock market is a causation of the change in Consumer confidence instead or merely correlated? When I look at that chart I see correlation, but I don’t see the stock market leading consumer confidence, nor the other way around. (Note that in mid to late 2007 the consumer confidence began diving several months BEFORE the stock market peaked. Yet in other spots it appears the stock market turns first.)

If anything I would personally argue that they are correlated, but neither is a causality of the other. More likely the sentiment of both consumers and investors are triggered by other factors.