STIRRINGS. Market Watch identifies what some economic commentators have been referring to as mustard seeds.

Perhaps, as with the Battle of Britain, it is not the end of the recession. The author cautions we are not at the beginning of the end. Perhaps it is the end of the beginning.

Prosperity may not be just around the corner, but statistical evidence is mounting to suggest that the worst of this recession may soon be past.

I'm still keeping track of transportation. A correspondent noted low international shipping rates for containers and quipped that the railroads were going from double stacks to single stacks to zero stacks to empty stacks. There's still a lot of traffic on the Union Pacific, although fewer trains are parked on the grade separated bits east and west of DeKalb waiting for their turn to be yarded.