Americans are losing faith that the economy will keep improving, according to a monthly survey.

The Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Index fell to a six-month low of 60.8 from a revised 66 in April, a sign of the toll that high gas prices, a choppy job outlook and a moribund housing market are taking on people’s psyches. Economists had expected an increase to 67.

“Consumers are considerably more apprehensive about future business and labor market conditions as well as their income prospects,” said Lynn Franco, director of The Conference Board Consumer Research Center. She said fears of inflation that had eased in April picked up again in May.

The index, released Tuesday, is still far from the reading of 90 that indicates a healthy economy. It hasn’t approached that level since the recession began in December 2007.

The results paint a different picture than earlier this year, when many hoped the economic recovery was gaining steam. In February, consumer confidence hit a three-year high. But since then, consumers have started paying more for food and gasoline and are seeing a “double dip” in the housing market.

Part of the problem in May was that the confidence survey’s cutoff of May 18 did not give consumers enough time to react to falling gas prices, which peaked early in the month, IHS Global Insight Economist Chris Christopher said.

To read the full story: Daily Finance

What will Philadelphia be like in 15 years?

For one thing, you can count on PowerPoint presentation becoming obsolete, if the Economy League of Greater Philadelphia is correct.

The league has created four possible futures of the region, ranging from “Tight Belts” (the recession never improves) to “America in the Driver’s Seat” (Marcellus Shale gas reserves provide an energy windfall).

To help the Philadelphia business community to prepare for the future–whatever it may be–the league hired actors to play out different scenarios.

For the scenario “Global Village,” Charlotte Ford and Benjamin Camp play Maggie and Jonathan, a married couple in the year 2026. Economic power has shifted away from the United States and toward China, Brazil, and India. To stay competitive, American workers have to travel extensively in other countries, so this two are rarely in the same place at the same time.

In this scene they talk via hologram phone–a new-fangled gadget with familiar reception problems.

Maggie: Wait! I can see you! Hello! Can you see me?

Jonathan: I can hear you. I cannot see you.

Maggie: Oh. Move, like, 10 degrees to the left.

Jonathan (shifts, looks in the wrong direction): I can imagine you.

Maggie: It’s almost like you’re looking at me. Like old times.

Jonathan: When we lived in the same country.

To read the full story: Newsworks

Wall Street faces a data-heavy schedule this week that is expected to bring more volatility to a market full of investors weary from six consecutive weeks of losses.

The government will release its closely watched May retail sales report on Tuesday and consumer inflation data on Wednesday. That’s only two of the dozen or so reports investors will have to work through.

Portfolio managers said this week’s data are going to be especially important, particularly since the past several weeks of reports have shown signs the U.S. economic recovery is in jeopardy.

To read the full story: CNN

We’re still trying to claw our way out of one recession. Could we be headed for another one? CNBC’s Carl Quintanilla sorts it all out.

Thirty-five percent of middle class Americans said they or someone in their household has experienced a physical symptom of stress related to the economy, according to a recent report by First Command Financial Services, a financial service provider.

Most common were anxiety, changes in weight, sleeplessness, low energy and irritability. “These are health conditions that we want people to be aware of,” said Kathryn Power, director of the Center for Mental Health Services, a division of U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Power said that at the start of the recession there was a sharp uptick in the number of calls to the Center’s suicide hotline. “About 30% of the calls we get are related to economic distress,” she said. “They were having emotional difficulties because of fear of their financial situation, fear they would lose their job, lose their home.”

To read the full story: CNNMoney.com

Count on digging deeper to buy a used car for junior.

Prices for used cars hit a record high in April and are poised to go even higher as production cutbacks during the recession and the more recent Japanese earthquake has made used vehicles a hot commodity as dealers dive into the depleted pool for cars to fill their lots.

The one-two punch has added between $1,500 to $3,000 to the price of some used cars just in the last six months, meaning more money for trade-ins and a tougher time for shoppers looking for a deal.

“The price of used cars is just crazy right now,” said Adam Lee, chairman of Maine dealer Lee Auto Malls. His dealership is paying hefty sums for cars it normally might not purchase to have a full inventory. “It can be a piece of junk—cars we used to pay $2,000 or $2,500 for, we are now paying $5,200 to $5,500,” Mr. Lee said.

Dealers say the prices of used vehicles will continue to soar as inventories of lower-priced and economy cars shrink. Japanese auto makers Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co. have warned their production could be limited through year-end. U.S. dealers say they expect to exhaust existing inventories and face severe shortages of new Japanese cars by July.

The topsy-turvy market has dealers that once quickly dumped trade-ins to wholesalers now holding onto those vehicles to fill out their shrinking inventories. The move is raising the value of trade-ins, helping dealers convince customers to buy brand new cars.

Stephanie Samuels went shopping for a used car but found prices for a late model car nearly as much as for new—and financing for the new car easier to obtain. “I was looking at buying a 2009 Ford Focus which was going to cost me about $16,000,” Ms. Samuels said. “But for a couple grand more I could get a new Focus and a better interest rate. So now I am shopping new.”

On Friday, wholesale auto auction house Manheim, a unit of Atlanta-based Cox Enterprises Inc., said its index hit 126.6 in April and adjusted wholesale prices of used vehicles rose 5% from a year ago. It’s the highest level the index has reached since it started tracking prices in January 1995. The index sets its baseline of 100 at January 1995.

To read the full story: The Wall Street Journal

Retailers reported surging April sales helped by a late Easter, extending strong spending momentum that began late last year.

However, some stores that cater to low-income shoppers are starting to warn that their customers are facing pressure from high gas prices.

As merchants reported their April results Thursday, a diverse group including Costco, Limited Brands, which isVictoria’s Secret’s parent company and teen retailer The Buckle posted soaring revenue and beat Wall Street expectations.

“The Easter bunny delivered the goods. It showed that the consumer was resilient and sales were better than expected despite some growing headwinds,” said Ken Perkins, president of RetailMetrics, a research firm. But he said, “We are beginning to see the leading edge of consumers starting to pull back.”

• Target reported a gain below internal expectations and said its shoppers face increasing pressure on their household budgets.
• Stage Stores, a moderate-price department store chain, reported solid gains but President and CEO Andy Hall noted that “rising gas prices made for a more cautious consumer.”
• Last week, Mike Duke, CEO of Wal-Mart Stores, said his company is already seeing higher gas prices affecting shoppers, who are cutting back on discretionary items. He said Wal-Mart customers are consolidating shopping trips, though they’re spending more on each excursion. The world’s largest retailer no longer reports monthly revenue figures.

Overall, revenue at major retailers soared a better-than-expected 8.5% last month over April 2010, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers.

The figures are based on stores open at least a year. That is considered a key indicator of a retailer’s health because it excludes results from stores that open or close during the year.

The increase is not as robust as it looks because Easter fell on April 24 this year, three weeks later than last year. That inflated the figure by three to five percentage points, hurting March by the same amount. March sales rose 2%.

April’s increase marked the biggest gain since March 2010, when the index rose 9%, helped by a similar Easter quirk.

Analysts study March and April combined to give an accurate reading of consumer spending for what retailers call the spring season. In May, merchants start shipping summer goods to stores.

For the March-April months combined, retailers delivered a 5.25% increase, strongest spring since 1999′s 6.2% rise.

Battle lines are being drawn in state capitals over whether workers should be judged by their creditworthiness.

In 25 states, 49 proposed bills are being debated. The majority of the bills are aimed at restricting when credit histories can be used in the hiring process, says Heather Morton, analyst at the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Economic stress is the main trigger. “Legislators are responding to the impact the recession has had on employment,” says Morton.

There is also concern about fairness, says Beth Givens, director of the non-profit advocacy group Privacy Rights Clearinghouse.

“Using a credit report to make a hiring decision is essentially making a value judgment,” says Givens. “The employer is saying, ‘I think you’re an irresponsible and careless person because you have a bad credit report.’”

Privacy and civil rights advocates say employers are unfairly using credit histories to weed out the down and out, especially people of color.

In California, the foreclosure crisis has combined with a 12.4% unemployment rate to erode the credit status of millions of state residents, says Tony Mendoza, state Assembly member who is sponsoring California’s bill. Yet, 60% of U.S. employers conduct credit checks on job applicants, according to theSociety for Human Resource Management (SHRM).

In one example, a Los Angeles African-American woman lost her administrative assistant job after her medical bills and debt piled up while she was ill, says Mendoza. When the woman’s health returned, she found employers looking to fill office, service and labor jobs using her credit history to gauge her trustworthiness.

“A credit report is an unfair lens through which to view job applicants,” says Mendoza.

Adam Levin, chairman of the consumer advice website Credit.com, advises job seekers to be prepared to explain mitigating circumstances about their personal finances.

Elizabeth Bille, associate counsel for SHRM, argues that employers use credit reports very judiciously, primarily late in the hiring process and mostly for sensitive managerial positions. She says many proposed bills are overly broad.

Giant credit bureaus Experian and Trans-Union also oppose the bills. Employers want to know whether a job applicant “acted prudently while (previously) employed,” says TransUnion spokeswoman Colleen Tunney-Ryan. “A pre-employment (credit) report is one tool that helps them assess that.”

To read the full story: USA Today

Neither tsunami nor Libyan turmoil nor higher oil prices have shaken businesses from hiring more workers.

After more than two years of a bleak prospects for job seekers, the economy’s slow, steady growth is finally creating jobs at a healthy pace.

“Our economy is showing signs of real strength,” President Obama told workers at a UPS shipping facility on Friday.

And while Friday’s report on the job market confirms that employers have begun hiring back some of the millions of workers sidelined by the recession that process will take years, even if the economy maintains its current momentum and the current pace of job creation continues.

The report showed job growth across most sectors, a sign that the economic recovery is broad-based and durable, according to Lakshman Achuthan, managing director of the Economic Cycle Research Institute.

“It’s here to stay,” he said. “There’s a revival in the overall economy that started at the beginning of this year, and job growth firming is part of that. I think a few months from now, when you look back, it’s going to be very clear that the economy remains resilient despite the shocks we’ve had.”

And we’ve had a few shocks recently. A tsunami spawned by a massive earthquake rattled Japan, killed thousands, slammed key supply chains in autos and electronics, and created the world’s most dire nuclear plant crisis since Chernobyl. In oil-rich Libya, rebel forces have been trying to overthrow the four-decade rule of Moammar Gadhafi and the conflict has drawn in the U.S. and NATO. Unrest has spread across the Middle East and has led to the overthrow of governments in Egypt and Tunisia. The uncertainty has driven oil prices higher.

To read the full story: MSNBC.com

“It was really a broad-based strength we saw in December,” says Mike Berry, director of industry research for MasterCard (MA) SpendingPulse.

Nearly every retail sector posted increases, from essentials such as food and auto repairs to luxury goods and jewelry, according to SpendingPulse, which tallies up sales according to payment form, such as credit cards or cash. Some sectors that posted lower numbers, such as department stores and electronics retailers, were affected more by pricing pressures than low traffic, Berry notes.

Read the full story: Daily Finance