By Robert Hughes
The October results from the University of Michigan Surveys of Consumer Sentiment show overall consumer sentiment improved slightly from the final September result. Consumer sentiment increased to 95.5 in October, up from 93.2 in September, a 2.5 percent gain. From a year ago, the index is off 3.1 percent. Despite recent volatility, sentiment is holding at favorable levels (see chart).
The two sub-indexes had small gains in October. First, the current-economic-conditions index rose to 113.2 from 108.5 in September (see chart). That is a 4.3 percent gain for the month but a