Wall Street forged ahead during trading yesterday after modest data lead to increased enthusiasm among traders. The S&P 500 turned in the best performance with a 0.48 percent (5.31 points) rise on the day. The NASDAQ (0.33 percent, 7.33 points) and Dow Jones (0.20 percent, 21.19 points) followed suit with gains of their own.

Unfortunately that enthusiasm failed to carry over into the morning. Stocks opened with a slight drop and were largely flat throughout the early session Friday. The composites have begun to rebound as they look forward to the day ahead.

According to Bloomberg News, most stocks in Asia and the United States are actually trading ahead. The major anchor on global markets today is coming from Europe, which continues to tread softly and slowly as it manages its way out of recession.

In other news, according to Reuters, a panel of 50 economists have downgraded the growth forecast for the United States once again. This marks the third month in a row that American growth prospects were revised down. A month ago economists foresaw growth a 2.9 percent annually for 2010. That figure has been revised to just 2.7 percent. GDP growth for 2011 has also been dropped, falling 0.3 points to 2.7 percent as well.

Despite this news, according to Reuters, the U.S. recovery is still on track.

The U.S. economy hit a major bump in the road during the second fiscal quarter of 2010. However, most economists believe the economy will overcome this slowdown and regain its projected recovery track for the next year or so.

This does not mean that the jobs will return and that the systemic problems in our economy will be handled. Rather, it means that the collapse will no longer be imminent. What economists are calling “recovery” many others would simply see as “treading water”. Nonetheless, at the very least we should not expect a return of the sudden collapse economy of 2008 and 2009.

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