February light vehicle sales came in at a SAAR of 10.4 million. A decrease of 3.5% from January.

Calculated Risk has a thought to ponder at the end of its post on the numbers (his graphs are as usual the ones to look at):

Right now it looks like both seasonally adjusted auto sales and residential investment will be lower in Q1 than in Q4 2009.

Hardly the stuff booming recoveries are made from. In fact, were we not so close to the the turn in GDP growth analysts would probably be wringing their hands and predicting the possibility of a recession.

You can rationalize these things away with snow excuses and whatever else you care to conjure up but sooner or later the fundamentals have to be faced. Right now they’re painting a pretty dismal picture of an economy hanging on by its fingernails. Maybe it claws its way out of the hole, maybe not. Right now the conclusion is anything but clear.