On the one hand, the Dow’s stopped plunging 500 points per day.  On the other, unemployment figures are still iffy.  So is the recession over?  Most experts don’t think the government is ready to go that far.

David Wyss, the chief economist for Standard & Poor’s, told Chris Isidore, “I think they’re going to be a little more optimistic, but not get too carried away by it.  These are central bankers and they tend to be pessimistic by nature.”

Kevin Giddis, a managing director at Morgan Keegan, also said, “You pull stimulus back when you see all four wheels rolling at the same time.  We still have something of a traction problem. For the Fed to declare ‘game over’ is way premature.”

The Fed will probably avoid any potentially embarrassing “Mission Accomplished”-style signs or declarations, then, and won’t do a 180 on all of the little helpful gestures it’s made.

Anyway, the Dow, Nasdaq, and S&P 500 all stayed roughly level today, losing just between 0.33 percent and 0.40 percent.