US consumer confidence rises slightly in February
U.S. consumer confidence improved slightly in February, rising to a reading of 130.7, the highest point since August.
The Conference Board said Tuesday that its measure of consumer sentiment is up from a revised reading of 130.4 in January. The January reading was revised down from an initial estimate of 131.6.
Consumers’ views on the present situation for business and labor market conditions fell this month, but their expectations for the future rose.
Conference Board economist Lynn Franco said that consumers continue to view the outlook as favorable, and when this is combined with solid employment growth, it should be enough to support continued spending and economic growth in the near term. Consumer spending has been the driving force in the economic expansion, now in its 11th year.
US home prices rise 2.9% in December on low rates, inventory
U.S. home prices rose at a faster pace in December as mortgage rates remained low and a falling supply of available properties set off bidding wars between buyers.
The S&P Corelogic Case-shiller 20city home price index climbed 2.9% in December from a year earlier after posting a 2.5% gain in November.
Prices rose in all 20 cities, led by increases of 6.5% in Phoenix, 5.3% in Charlotte, North Carolina, and 5.2% in Tampa, Florida. Prices rose just 1% in Chicago and New York.
Just 1.42 million homes were on the market at the end of January, down nearly 11% from a year earlier. The limited supply pushes prices higher. The rate for a benchmark 30-year, benchmark mortgage loan was 3.49% last week, down from 4.35% a year earlier.
Prices in the 20 cities are up 63% from the low they reached in March 2012 in the wake of the financial crisis and 6% above their July 2006 pre-crisis peak.
Ford recalls popular F-150 pickup to fix headlamp problem
Ford is recalling more than 217,000 pickup trucks mainly in North America to fix a problem with the daytime running lights.
The recall covers certain F-150 trucks with LED headlights from the 2018 through 2020 model years. The Dearborn, Michigan, automaker says the running lights will keep working if the driver moves the headlight switch from auto to the low beam position. U.S. safety standards require vehicles to change to parking lights in that case.
The problem could reduce visibility to other drivers, but Ford says it doesn’t know of any crashes.
Dealers will update software to fix the problem.