US consumer confidence held steady in March as Americans were sanguine about their current situations but grew slightly more pessimistic about the outlook. The Conference Board’s gauge of sentiment ticked down to 104.7 from a downwardly revised 104.8 a month earlier, data out Tuesday showed. The median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of economists called for a reading of 107. A measure of expectations fell to 73.8, the lowest since October, while the gauge of current conditions picked up to 151. Though consumer confidence had been generally improving in recent months, still-high prices and soaring borrowing costs are ... (full story)