"The ABC/Post Consumer Comfort Index remains at -1 on its scale of +100 to -100, unchanged from last week and on par with its 2007 average, -2. Apart from a January drop, the CCI's been largely stable since mid-November."

"The CCI is holding tough despite the Dow Jones industrial average's worst week in four years and a 12 cent rise in the average price of a gallon of gas this week, the sixth biggest weekly increase by value in 10 years."

"Of the two, gasoline prices probably bear closer watching. Consumer sentiment has been highly sensitive to gas prices in the past. By contrast, it's tended not to be influenced by sharp drops in the Dow, including most recently the market-shaking falls of Oct. 27, 1997, Aug. 31, 1998, and April 14, 2000."

"There's good reason: While many Americans have stock investments, most hold stocks indirectly (through funds or pension savings) rather than directly, and most are long-term, buy-and-hold investors, largely insulated from market ups and downs. Quite unlike paper losses to stock portfolios, gasoline
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