Washington ? Slightly more than half of Americans think the sickly U.S. economy has stabilized, and almost three in every four think it will take longer than six months for a massive economic stimulus program to be felt, an Ipsos-McClatchy tracking poll showed Wednesday.

And a separate survey released Wednesday by Ipsos showed the first significant boost in consumer confidence since September, when the global financial crisis erupted.

The Ipsos/McClatchy tracking poll found that 52 percent of Americans now think the U.S. economy has stabilized. That’s well up from the 35 percent who felt that just four weeks earlier.