And JPM's Daniel Silver noted the.....>

US DATA REACT: And JPM's Daniel Silver noted the Conference Board consumer

confidence index "fell from 128.6 in November (revised from 129.5) to 122.1 in

December. The December figure was much lower than expectations, but still a

solid level for sentiment, and the other measures of consumer attitudes reported

by Bloomberg and the University of Michigan also show high levels of sentiment

despite some recent deterioration."

- "The decline in today's report was concentrated in the expectations measure,

which dropped 11.9 points, while the present situation index increased 1.7

points to a new high for the expansion of 156.6," he said. "In the details

related to expectations, the survey showed weakening sentiment regarding

expected business conditions and expected employment. The survey's labor market

differential, calculated as the share of respondents reporting that jobs are

plentiful less the share reporting that jobs are hard to get, inched down from

its high for the cycle of 20.7 in November to 20.5 in December."