ECONOMY

Consumer Index Seen Falling: The Conference Board’s consumer confidence index in March probably will fall to 66 or 65 from 68.5 in February, said Delos Smith, a senior business analyst at the research organization. The Conference Board is scheduled to release the report on March 30. The consumer confidence index is down almost 10 points since rising to 78.1 in December, after the election of President Clinton. The December reading was the highest since April, 1991, when it was 79.4. Meanwhile, the University of Michigan’s preliminary consumer sentiment index for March fell to 84.3 from 86.6 in February, according to sources with access to the survey.