(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-03-07 21:11

Home foreclosures, meanwhile, jumped to a record high in the final quarter of last year and are likely to keep on rising.

Against this backdrop, individuals' sentiments about the economy and their own financial standing over the next six months sank deeper into negative territory. This gauge plunged to a negative 41.6 in early March, down from a negative 7 in February. The new reading also was the worst on record.

Another gauge of attitudes about investing, including comfort in making major purchases, dropped to 56.7 in early March, down from 62.6 in February. The new figure also was the lowest on records going back to 2002. Turbulence on Wall Street and decline in home values -- generally a homeowner's single-biggest asset -- are taking their toll on people's sense of financial well-being, analysts said.

Economists keep close tabs on confidence barometers for clues about consumers' willingness to spend.

The big worry is that consumers will cut back sharply on their spending, throwing the economy into a tailspin.

However, there was some reason to be hopeful that shoppers won't collapse -- even if they are feeling anxious about the economy.

The nation's retailers, reporting sales results on Thursday, got a bit of a reprieve. Shoppers cautiously returned to malls, after retrenching in recent months. Among the big winners: discounters like Wal-Mart Stores Inc., whose results beat expectations.

Still, as retailers reported mixed February sales results, it was clear that shoppers weren't splurging but rather focused on necessities, like groceries and low prices. Among the weakest performers were apparel stores such as Gap Inc., Limited Brands Inc. and J.C. Penney Co.

Another measure tracking consumers' feelings about employment conditions fell to 99.2 in early March, down from 101.3 in February. The new reading was the lowest since early October 2003.

The RBC consumer confidence index was based on the responses from 1,013 adults surveyed Monday through Wednesday about their attitudes on personal finance and the economy. Results of the survey had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points. The overall confidence index is benchmarked to a reading of 100 in January 2002, when Ipsos started the survey.

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