Confidence Tag

Consumers bought slightly cheer back into the vacation season.  The Conference Board’s closely watched Consumer Confidence Index rebounded in December following back-to-back monthly declines.  The index rose sharply to 108.3 for this month, marking a rise from 101.4 in November and the very best reading since April.  That was an enormous — and welcome — surprise as economists had penciled in one other decline, to 100.5.  Wall Street ran with the news and pushed the market higher with the Dow Jones Industrial Average up 1.5 percent, or 488.03 points, to 33,337.77 in midday trading.  Leading retail and fashion stocks was Nike Inc., which was also benefiting from a powerful quarterly profit report late Tuesday, and saw its refill 13.5 percent to $117.17 in midday trading.  Among...