Confidence slumps, pizza tastes better and Apple gets sliced

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A few items of note from around the markets today:

---Feel better? No. Seems like Americans ought to be feeling a little less downbeat about the economy after the feared financial-system meltdown didn’t happen last month, and given the rebound in stock prices the last three weeks. Instead, their mood is worse: A monthly consumer confidence index compiled by West L.A.-based Investor’s Business Daily fell this month to the lowest level since it was created in February 2001. The latest index reading, based on a poll of 900 adults nationwide last week, sank to 39.2 from 42.5 in March. Any reading under 50 indicates overall pessimism. Stock market bears will love the breadth of the drop across nearly all demographic groups. Take a closer look here.

--- Feel better? Yes. Shares of California Pizza Kitchen Inc. surged to $15.24 in after-hours trading, up nearly 7% from their regular-session close of $14.28, after the L.A.-based restaurant chain said same-store sales were up about 0.4% in the first quarter. That wasn’t much of an increase, but it was better than the 1% sales decline the company had previously warned it might show.

CPK also said first-quarter earnings were likely to be 7 cents or 8 cents a share, up from the 4-cents-to-6-cents range of its previous forecast. It credited better sales ‘and operating efficiencies.’ Still, things are tough out there in the casual-dining world: CPK had earned 12 cents a share in the first quarter of 2007.

---A rare ‘sell’ on Apple Inc. Analyst Tavis McCourt at brokerage Morgan Keegan & Co. in Nashville cut his rating on the tech darling to ‘underperform’ — the equivalent of ‘sell’ — based on concerns about consumer spending. Hey, nobody’s supposed to bet against Steve Jobs: Every other brokerage analyst rates the stock either ‘buy’ or ‘hold.’ The shares dipped $3.05 to $152.84 amid a broad market pullback. For more on McCourt’s view, go here on MarketWatch.com.