It’s not that there is any inverse relationship between these two. Consumer confidence index increased to 55.9 in January from a revised 53.6 in December. Economists had expected a reading of 54 for January. On the other hand, U.S. home prices fell in November. Home price indexes showed prices in 10 major metropolitan areas fell 4.5% in November from a year earlier, while the index for 20 major metropolitan areas dropped 5.3% on the year.

Few days ago, Commerce Department reported that existing-home sales plunged in December after three straight months of increases lifted by a government tax credit. Last week, the department said new home construction fell far more than expected in December.

Even though there is a good news about consumer confidence, Dow closed down 2 points after moving up more than 80 points for the day. This week is a tough week to trade because of so many events taking place. Interest-rate decision is coming up from the Federal Reserve on Wednesday. There is a speculation about whether Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke would be reconfirmed or not. Traders are also waiting for State of the Union Address by President Obama. If President talks about more laws to restrict banks’ abuse of the financial system, you will see more financial stocks going down.

Keep an eye on the market, but don’t get obsessed with it if you are not a day-trader.

In recent weeks Ben Bernanke has been taking a lot of heat in the Senate as they debate whether to confirm Bernanke to a second term or not. His first term expires on January 31st of 2010. At least for the moment Bernanke will get his day in the sun as Time Magazine announced him as their Person of the Year for 2009. Since Time Magazine started naming their Person of the Year in 1927, the honor has gone to the person with the most influential and newsworthy person from that year.

Time Magazine described Bernanke as “the most powerful nerd on the planet.” While at Princeton Bernanke was a leading scholar of the Great Depression. Bernanke concluded that the passive Fed of the 1930′s contributed to the depression, which is precisely why he decided that the Federal Reserve could not afford to be passive during this financial crisis. Most definitely this severe economic recession that dominated the news in 2009 could have been another depression, but Time Magazine, as well as many others, believe Bernanke helped stop that depression. He led the charge in reshaping monetary policy and injected millions of dollars into an economy that was screaming for help from somewhere.

Personally I find Bernanke to be a solid choice as Person of the Year for 2009. Bernanke gets little credit for his understanding of Main Street, but he really isn’t a Wall Street man by heart. In Time Magazine’s interview of him Bernanke says “I understand why people are frustrated, I’m frustrated too.” He goes on to say, “This is all very real to me,” and lets the world know he understands this isn’t a video game or anything to be messing around with. Probably the best quote of them all from the interview is “I’m not happy with where we are, but it’s a lot better than where we could be.” I couldn’t agree more with the Fed Chairman on that quote. While our economy isn’t in a good place, things looked as if they could get much worse. There will definitely be different challenges going forward, but in 2009 Bernanke did a solid job at the helm.