Summer sunshine: U.S. consumer confidence surges in August

It looks like consumers are starting to feel more confident about the U.S. economy's prospects for recovery. Consumer confidence jumped in August, propelled higher by Americans' assessment of the job market.

Consumer confidence rose about 7 points to 54.1 in August, the Conference Board announced Tuesday. A Bloomberg News survey of economists had expected the index to rise to 48.0 in August from a revised 47.4 in July; it totaled 44.8 in June. The index hit a record low of 25.3 in February. (Base year, 1985=100.)