The stock market tends to move in response to the monthly release of the U.S. consumer confidence index (CCI), signaling that individuals make investment decisions on the basis of this information. Such behavior is mostly irrational. The CCI is generally understood to be a lagging indicator; by the time the CCI has been released, the stock market should have already reflected the latest adjustments to its prices based on consumer sentiment. Furthermore, the CCI, to the degree that it reflects on the stock market, reflects only on the stock market as a whole, not on individual stocks. The questions that make up the CCI, indeed, gauge individual levels of confidence about factors, such as employment rates, that