California Business Minute™

Hi, I am Tim Johnson and welcome to the California Business Minute.

The New York-based Conference Board released it latest Consumer Confidence Index. 
The Index rose more than 12 points to 39.2, up from a revised 26.9 in March. The
reading marks the highest level since November's 44.7 and well surpasses economists'
expectations for 29.5. The Survey showed a substantial improvement in consumers'
short-term outlook, including even their assessment of the job picture. The huge
jump in confidence follows a small increase in March, following a freefall in
February.  Still, the Index remains well below year-ago levels of 62.8. The Survey
showed that those anticipating business conditions will worsen over the next six
months declined to 25.3 percent from 37.8 percent, while those expecting conditions
to improve increased to 15.6 percent from 9.6 percent in March.

Economic confidence among small business owners rose to its highest level in 14
months in April as more of them see the broader economy and the conditions for
their own businesses improving; according to a monthly survey paid for by the
credit card firm Discover Financial Services. The monthly index increased more
than 10 points, rising to 88.5, up from 78.2 in March and the highest since the
index hit 90.8 in February 2008. April’s mark represents the third consecutive
monthly increase in economic confidence among small business owners.

The number of small business owners who say the economy is getting better nearly
doubled to 31 percent, up from 16 percent in March and the highest level in this
category in two years. The number of owners who see the economy getting worse
continued to decline. It dropped to 51 percent in April, down from 69 percent in
February 2009. Yet while the anticipation of improvement is on the rise, 91 percent
of small business owners still rank the current economy as “fair” or “poor,” a
figure that has been constant for eight months.

Confidence in technology and consumer electronics also climbed sharply, according
to new figures from the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) and San Francisco-based
CNET. The organizations said that their CEA-CNET Index of Consumer Technology
Expectations (ICTE) rose to 77.4, up more than 10 points from March to reach its
highest level since December. The index also is up on a year-over-year basis for
the first time since September.

I am Tim Johnson and this has been the California Business Minute.