Confidence drops...

As alluded to in the below article, the Consumer Confidence Index reported numbers that have created concern in the financial sectors, Confidence takes biggest hit in 2 years:

The Conference Board said its consumer confidence index fell to 105.0 in the latest survey of 5,000 households from a revised 111.9 reading in July.

It was the biggest month-over-month drop since September 2005, when hurricanes Katrina and Rita sent gas prices to then record levels. This time it was problems was a series of financial storms, as consumers focused on problems in subprime mortgages, and falling home and stock prices.

It should be noted that the number was less than predicted:

The reading was also the lowest in a year, though it came in a shade better than the average forecast of 104.5 from economists surveyed by Briefing.com.