"The consumer believes that growth is picking up pace," said Jonathan Basile, senior economist at Credit Suisse in New York, whose forecast of 70 for the index was the most accurate. "The ducks are in a row for stronger consumer spending this year."
Stocks held losses after the report as crude oil prices jumped on concern over rising unrest in North Africa and the Middle East.
The Standard & Poor's 500 Index fell 0.7% to 1,334.33 at 10:44 a.m. in New York on February 22. Treasury securities rose, pushing down the yield on the benchmark 10-year note to 3.51% from 3.59% late on February 21.
Stanford Moves to Prison Hospital
(Bloomberg News) R. Allen Stanford was moved to a prison hospital for treatment of an anxiety-drug habit the Texas financier acquired in jail while awaiting trial on charges that he swindled investors of $7 billion.
"He is being transferred," said Chris Burke, a spokesman for the U.S. Bureau of Prisons. Stanford shipped out February 14 from the federal lockup in Houston, where he has been detained as a flight risk since his arrest in June 2009.
Stanford, 60, denies all wrongdoing in connection with criminal and civil allegations that he cheated investors through a Ponzi scheme built on certificates of deposit issued by Antigua-based Stanford International Bank Ltd. Prosecutors claim the bank paid early investors "improbable, if not impossible" rates of return by taking funds from later CD buyers.