There have been hopes recently of a steadying in consumer spending leading to a stabilization in economic trends this fall or later this year, but the data does not provide much support for that argument. These are still massive job losses and wage gains are minimal. Granted, payroll trends do lag overall economic trends, but unless businesses start to show a willingness to hire and not just to lay off fewer people, the market may be ahead of itself in looking at the recent economic data as harbingers of much better trends.