Consumer Comfort in U.S. Advances to a 13-Week High

Improved sentiment about the buying climate and personal finances helped carry household optimism to a 13-week high, Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index figures showed Thursday.

Consumer sentiment is closing in on its best year since 2001. Stocks at all-time highs, unemployment near a 17-year low and firmer economic growth are leading to brighter views of personal finances and the economy. One sign of the stock market’s effect on optimism was that confidence among those who are unemployed, which includes retirees, reached a new 16-year high as the values of retirement accounts climbed.