>[How should this news be interpreted? Does it
>indicate a sustainable trend or is it an interesting
>effect of non-sustainable activity (such as purchases
>spurred by tax refunds and home re-financing)? DRM]
Those are the key questions, and no one knows the answer. The labor market is, as the Fed said the other day, stabilizing, but hasn't yet caught fire. If it doesn't, the recovery is doomed.
Doug