U.S. consumer confidence at a high level

WASHINGTON — American consumers are the most confident they've been since 2000.

The Conference Board says its consumer confidence index rose to 130.8 in February, highest since November 2000 and up from 124.3 in January.

The business research group's index measures consumers' assessment of current conditions and their outlook for the next six months. They feel better about today's economy than they have since March 2001. Their outlook also improved.

Tax cuts passed into law last year are starting to show up in workers' paychecks. “As people slowly absorb the details of the tax reform package, opinion polls suggest that it is becoming significantly more popular,” Stephen Stanley, chief economist at Amherst Pierpont Securities, wrote in a research note.

A strong job market is also boosting confidence. The unemployment rate has stayed at a 17-year low 4.1 percent.

Consumers shrugged off volatility in the stock market.

“Overall, consumers remain quite confident that the economy will continue expanding at a strong pace in the months ahead,” says Lynn Franco, the Conference Board's director of economic indicators.

The overall index hit bottom at 25.3 in February 2009 at the depths of the Great Recession before rebounding as the U.S. economy recovered.

In another report Tuesday, new orders for longlasting manufactured goods fell 3.7 percent in January, the biggest decline since July 2017, following two months of increases that reflected strength in the country's industry.

The Commerce Department said orders were depressed by a 10 percent drop in demand for transportation equipment, a category that can bounce around from month to month.

Excluding transportation, durable goods orders slipped only 0.3 percent. Orders for defense capital goods plunged 26.3 percent. Excluding defense, new durable goods orders fell 2.7 percent.

Overall orders in January for durable goods, which are meant to last at least three years, decreased 3.7 percent to $239.7 billion. Orders were up 5.8 percent for the full year 2017, the best showing in six years.

American manufacturers have benefited from a pickup in global economic growth and a weaker dollar, which makes U.S. goods less expensive in foreign markets.

Also Tuesday, a report said that U.S. home prices rose at the fastest 12month pace in more than three years in 2017, as potential home buyers were fighting over a limited number of available properties.

Standard & Poor’s said its S&P CoreLogic CaseShiller national home price index jumped 6.3 percent in 2017, the most since June 2014.

Home prices are rising much faster than wages and overall measure of inflation.