Investors are gaining confidence the worst may be over as China’s prospects improve and the U.S. looks likely to avoid the so-called fiscal cliff, according to results of the latest Bloomberg Global Poll issued today. Two-thirds of the 862 surveyed described the global economy as either stable or improving. That’s up from just over half in the September survey and the most since May 2011.

Other reports today showed consumer confidence in the U.S. climbed to a seven-month high last week, and more Americans signed contracts in October to buy a previously owned house.

The index of pending home resales climbed 5.2 percent last month, exceeding the highest estimate in a Bloomberg survey of economists, figures from the National Association of Realtors showed today in Washington. The median forecast in the Bloomberg survey called for a 1 percent gain.

The Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index rose to minus 33 in the period ended Nov. 25, the highest level since April, from minus 33.9 the previous week. It marked the highest level for a Thanksgiving week, when shoppers begin their year-end holiday gift buying, since before the recession began five years ago.

Chain Stores

An improving housing market may further lift spirits, benefiting stores such as Target Corp. and Macy’s Inc. after retailers posted November same-store sales that trailed analysts’ estimates as superstorm Sandy cut traffic early in the month, overwhelming gains from the start of holiday shopping.

Sales at Macy’s, the second-biggest U.S. department-store company, fell 0.7 percent, compared with the average projection for a 2.5 percent gain from analysts surveyed by researcher Retail Metrics Inc. Target, the second-largest U.S. discount chain, posted a 1 percent decline in same-store sales, missing the estimate for a 2.1 percent increase.

Sandy, the largest Atlantic storm ever to hit the U.S., may trim as much as 0.5 percentage point from fourth-quarter GDP, according to Jan Hatzius, chief economist at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. in New York. Nonetheless, reconstruction work may add as much as 0.75 point to growth in the first quarter of 2013, he estimates.

The job market, albeit improving, will reflect a setback from Sandy for some months. Payrolls rose by 95,000 workers in November after climbing 171,000 the prior month, according to the Bloomberg survey median ahead of Labor Department data due Dec. 7. The unemployment rate probably held at 7.9 percent.

‘Unacceptably High’