Page 6 - Confidence Numbers News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Confidence, those numbers are not great right now. what are the trends you guys look at to see where we're going? >> i think we look at the confidence numbers and those don't reflect positively, but oddly enough, i'll say it over and over again, the earnings numbers, ceos, their companies are not falling off a cliff the way you'd expect them to. the question then becomes what are they doing with the earnings? and unfortunately they're not turning around and hiring more people or investing in new, you know, plants and equipment. what they're doing is either hoarding the cash or buying back thei...

Remember that, they'll remember that bin laden is dead. >> as a result, the new york times/cbs news poll shows his approval jumped up. as we look ahead to 18 months or so from now, does this give him a long-term boost ahead of the elections? >> it helps with the confidence numbers and concerns that the president seemed like something of a foreign policy nafe. this helps him toward that underlying argument. in terms of the long-term benefits, i think it is too early to tell. there is little question this election is going to ride heavily on the economy. that's what the republicans have been hit...

Down, as unemployment numbers come down confidence numbers go up and they'll spend more and maybe make the big one, the home price we saw this morning, being so bad may turn the corner as well. again, a lot of this has to do with mr. obama signing the tax credits going forward, for another two years and that will turn confidence around, but, if not, if not slowly, maybe a little quicker than slowly and, hopefully quicker and hopefully he'll address it tonight. martha: before i let you go, the sentiment around the country, and we talked to economists is we are in recovery. lame as it may be in ...

The idea that they are going to be held accountable for all the costs associated with this major spill in the u.s. gulf. >> yeah, indeed. thank you very much, jop decker. >> thanks a lot, alex. the latest retail sales numbers are out for the month of may painting a different picture than the latest confidence numbers. it dropped for the first time in eight months. cop assumers slashed spending on everything from cars to clothing. yet another survey shows consumer sentiment is at its highest level in 2 1/2 years. so it begs the question, what gives with that? joining me now from washington, d...

Be healing. stocks right now are up on the news. trish regan is live at the new york stock exchange. trish, the market does seem to like this report, but when you dig into the numbers, what kind of picture does it show? >> reporter: not a very pretty one, david. the market's very concerned about the short term. traders are trading based pretty much on today so, yes, they're a little encouraged because this is better than expected but the reality is, david, we are eight months into a recovery and we are still dealing with a very, very bleak unemployment picture. >> and what's the possibility se...