Record high increases like this are always welcome news. The general feeling seems to be that while it may not be great, the worst is behind us. Whether that is real will take a few months but it's not unreasonable.
The Conference Board, an industry group, said its index of consumer attitudes jumped to 54.9 in May from a revised 40.8 in April, the biggest one-month jump since April 2003.
The consensus forecast was for the index to rise to 42.
