Consumer confidence gains steam

The Conference Board said that its Consumer Confidence Index rose to 109.0 in December from a revised 105.3 in November and 105.1 in October.

The reading was the highest since the index registered 109.8 in April and was better than Wall Street anticipated. Analysts had been expecting a slight dip in the December reading to about 102.5.

Lynn Franco, director of the board’s consumer research center, said in a statement accompanying the report that despite the reading “there is little to suggest that the pace of economic activity in the final quarter of 2006 is anything but moderately better than its uninspiring performance earlier this year.”