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Consumer Sentiment Up Slightly in March, Spending Still Down

After dipping into negative territory last month, consumer sentiment inched up in March, according to the ""Consumer Reports"":http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/index.htm Index.

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The index's sentiment measure improved to 50.7 in March from a reading of 48.9 in February. The greatest improvement among income brackets was seen in lower-income households earning less than $50,000--that index climbed 3.7 points.

Besides sentiment, the index report tracks consumer responses on four other key measures: financial troubles, stress, retail activity, and employment.

The ""Trouble Tracker"" measure, which gauges the scale and frequency of financial woes faced by Americans, also improved for the fourth straight month. The tracker stands now at 38.8, just above its all-time low of 38.7 set in November 2012. The greatest improvement was among [COLUMN_BREAK]

middle-income households (earning between $50,000 and $99,000), where the measure declined 14.6 points.

According to Consumer Reports, the two most prominent troubles Americans have faced over the past month were missed payments on a major bill (other than mortgage) and being unable to afford medical bills or medications.

""The long view shows the financial hardship faced by Americans has declined sharply from the dire days of two years ago. But, that has yet to translate into robust levels of retail spending for 2013,"" said Ed Farrell , director of consumer insight at the Consumer Reports National Research Center.

The index's past 30-day retail measure fell to 9.9, coming in below February's reading of 10.5 and March 2012's 11.5. The decline was mostly driven by softness in both major home and personal electronics as well as small appliances. Planned consumer retail activity for March--as predicted in the next 30-day retail measure--shows year-over-year losses in the same categories.

The employment measure picked up slightly for the second straight month, edging up to 49.9 from 49.4 previously. Consumers reported that job gains (at 4.2 percent) more or less kept pace with job losses (4.3 percent) in the past 30 days.

Finally, the measure of consumer stress was largely unchanged from February at 56.1. The most stressed Americans are those in households earning less than $50,000 (58.0), those aged 35-64 (56.7), and those living in the Northeast (58.1).

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