Tue Aug 3, 2004

NEW YORK, Aug 3 (Reuters) - U.S. consumer confidence improved modestly in the latest week as a greater number of American consumers said now was a good time to shop, ABC News/Money Magazine said on Tuesday.

ABC News/Money Magazine's Consumer Comfort index stood at -6 in the week ended Aug. 1, up from -7 in the previous week and considerably higher than a low of -20 touched less than two months ago.

Lower gasoline prices had put consumers at ease, the survey said, although analysts noted that another spike in oil prices in recent days could soon translate into higher costs at the pump, potentially undoing the confidence gains.

The latest week's stride in sentiment was based entirely on an increase in they survey's buying climate gauge as the number of respondents saying this was a good time to buy rose two percentage points to 41 percent, reversing last week's decline.

Other components gauging the overall state of the economy and U.S. consumers' thoughts about their personal finances were steady last week.

But economists note that there has been scant correlation in recent years between what consumers tell sentiment surveys and how they spend their cash. In June, for example, confidence was rising by several measures even as spending took its biggest plunge in nearly three years.

The ABC/Money survey was based on about 1,000 interviews conducted in the month ended Aug. 1. It has a margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points.

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