Continuing Down The Economic Road To Recovery

Wow! What another great week of economic good news. Sign, sign, everywhere a sign things are improving.

Good economic news started on Monday with pending home sales jumping 3.2%. Buyers defied expectations with an increase in signed sales contracts in March.

The pending home sales index for March from the National Association of Realtors jumped 3.2% from February, surprising economists who were looking for the index to hold steady.

We need several months of sustained growth to demonstrate a recovery in housing, which is necessary for the overall economy to turn around," said Lawrence Yun, NAR's chief economist. And, the upturn may have been boosted by the first time homebuyers tax credit, a temporary measure that will lapse in December.

"If you subscribe to the theory that the global economic crisis started with the U.S. housing market and will end there, you're going to be encouraged by reports like this that suggest housing is bottoming," said Kevin D. Mahn, managing director at Hennion & Walsh.

On Tuesday, Federal Reserve chairman, Ben Bernanke says economic recovery will begin later in 2009.

"We continue to expect economic activity to bottom out, then to turn up later this year," said Bernanke in a prepared testimony.

Also, 0n Tuesday, "Some investors were expecting stock prices of zero to be reality," said Mike O'Rourke, chief market strategist with BTIG, an institutional brokerage firm in New York. Those fears appear to be wildly overblown.

My favorite vacation spot and home of "The Happiest Place on Earth", Disney beat estimates. Disney President and CEO Robert A. Iger said, " We remain focused on our core business strategy and believe our creativity, brands and business will serve us well as the economy recovers."

On Wednesday, The ADP said there were 31% fewer private sector job losses in April, while outplacement firm says pace of layoffs slowed.

"There's a sense here of a turn, which is good news" said Joel Prakken, an ADP spokesman and chairman of Macroeconomic Advisors, LLC.

On Thursday, the number of people filing first time unemployment claims fell by 34,000.

"We are seeing some improvement in the labor market," said Mark Vitner, an economist at Wachovia Economics Group. And Thursday's report suggests "that the most recent peak in layoffs is behind us," he added.

Every week I get more and more excited at watching this turn around begin. As the good news continues so does the road to economic recovery.