Inflation concerns and, to a lesser extent, lingering worries about the pandemic drove U.S. consumer confidence down to a nine-month low in November, according to The Conference Board. The Conference Board’s consumer confidence index fell in November to a reading of 109.5, down from 111.6 in October, according to a Nov. 30 release. The downtick represents the lowest reading in the measure since it hit 95.2 in February. “Expectations about short-term growth prospects ticked up, but job and income prospects ticked down. Concerns about rising prices—and, to a lesser degree, the Delta variant—were the primary drivers of the slight decline in confidence,” Lynn Franco, Senior Director of Economic Indicators at The Conference Board, said in a statement. The survey period didn’t cover the recent emergence of the new Omicron variant of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, the spread of which appears to have triggered a renewed sense of anxiety, sparking …