Our respondents' confidence in the outlook for their own companies went up three-tenths of a percent, to 7.1 percent, thanks to half-point-plus increases in the business consulting, financial services and entertainment/ media/advertising industries. The jump might have been higher were it not for decreases of 0.6 percent and 0.4 percent, respectively, by respondents in the noncomputer manufacturing and retail/wholesale distribution sectors. The latter is a bit of a surprise: The economy gained nearly a quarter of a million jobs in May, and the Bureau of Economic Analysis announced personal income rose by 0.6 percent in April. Perhaps the rise in the price of gasoline to over $2 a gallon is partly to blame.

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