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New York, NY—Consumer confidence leaped up in November, surpassing economists’ expectations and driving the Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Index to the highest level since February 2008 when the recession was just beginning to hit. The Conference Board numbers follow on the heels of a record leap in Unity Marketing’s Luxury Consumption Index.

According to this article in Women’s Wear Daily, the Consumer Confidence Index rose from 73.1 in October to 73.7 in November. Economists were predicting a more modest rise to 73.2.

Over the past few months, consumers have grown increasingly more upbeat about the current and expected state of the job market, and this turnaround in sentiment is helping to boost confidence,” said Lynn Franco, director of economic indicators at the research group, in the article.

Meanwhile, the Luxury Institute’s November Wealth Report says the top three chains in U.S. luxury retail—Nordstrom, Saks, and Neiman Marcus—all reported gains in both sales and profits for the quarter ended October 31. Nordstrom posted a 14% increase in total sales and a 10.7% jump in same-store sales. Sales growth at its flagship stores outpaced its off-price Rack stores, another strong signal for luxury spending.

Sales at Neiman Marcus rose 5.4% in the quarter, led by handbags, jewelry, and men’s items, says the Luxury Institute report. Meanwhile, Saks saw a more modest 3.3% increase over last year’s figures. Analysts had been forecasting 4.5% growth for the retailer, but the effects of Hurricane Sandy drove sales down in the period.

One caveat to the good news, reported by both Women’s Wear Daily and the Luxury Institute: the dreaded fiscal cliff, if not resolved at least to some degree, could drag down confidence and, with the fragile economic situation in Europe, possibly spark another recession if confidence goes low enough.

Finally, a survey conducted by InStyle magazine for its December issue showed two trends jewelers love to see: 61% of readers say they’d rather have one nice present (like jewelry!) than a lot of smaller trinkets for a holiday gift, and 76% said they still prefer to do the bulk of their shopping in a store, rather than online. But according to digital analytics firm ComScore, Cyber Monday sales this year grew 17% over last year, smashing all records for the day. Jewelry and watches were among the top five categories of products bought online that day; the category also grew 17% over last year, making it one of the fastest-growing categories online. But ComScore's figures didn't break out jewelry and watch sales by e-tailers vs. websites of brick-and-mortar stores.