Consumer Confidence Is Strong Despite Kosovo
U.S. involvement in the Balkan crisis has done nothing to weaken consumers' rosy outlook for the economy.</br></br>The Conference Board said its monthly consumer-confidence index rose to 134.9 in April from 134.0 in March, reaching its highest level since last summer. Low unemployment and a booming stock market helped keep the gauge at lofty levels.</br></br>"I was looking for the number to [fall] in part because of the Kosovo crisis," said Tim Martin, senior economist for BankAmerica Corp. "But consumers aren't too focused on the war in Kosovo, which is kind of surprising, because during the Gulf War, consumer confidence took a pretty severe beating."</br></br>Meanwhile, sales of existing homes rose less than 1% in March as a strong economy and low mortgage rates continued to lure buyers. The National Association of Realtors said existing single-family homes changed hands at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.05 million, compared with 5.02 million in February and up 3.7% from 4.87 million in March 1998. Sales rose slightly in the Midwest and West, while the Northeast fell slightly and the South was flat.</br></br>The home-sales report also surprised economists, who had predicted home sales would drop about 2% from February's level. That forecast was based partly on a mortgage-application survey compiled by the Mortgage Bankers Association of America that showed activity among purchase mortgages, a leading indicator for home sales, had slipped in recent weeks.