(MONEY Magazine) – Consumer confidence as measured by the 2-year-old MONEY Magazine/ABC News consumer comfort index continued to improve last month to a -4 reading, up from an all-time low of -15 in February. Still, Americans' mood is far less upbeat than at the peak of +8 in May 1986. While people feel roughly as good about their personal finances as they did then, they are more worried about unemployment, inflation and the stock market.

CHART: CONSUMER COMFORT INDEX October -4 September -6 Year ago -11

Index: on a scale of -100 to +100

The index is derived from the response of 1,000 randomly selected adults to three questions about public and personal finances in telephone polls taken over the five weeks through Oct.4.

CREDIT: MELANIE MARDER PARKS CAPTION: NO CAPTION DESCRIPTION: Color illustration: Harvest vegetables.