One week officially into the year, economic data reveal mixed signals as to what the country can expect for this year. Is a recovery really in the offing or will the wait extend to beyond the year 2010?

The past few days have brought on a smattering of welcome news, not only for the US economy, but also for consumers and businesses which need good news the most.

For the third straight week, interest rates for 30-year home loans rose to 5.03%, up from 5.00% only a week before, according to mortgage firm Freddie Mac. Despite this development, mortgage rates are still attractive enough for potential home buyers or those looking for a refinance to take notice.

A much-anticipated meeting by the Federal Reserve Board last Wednesday (Sept. 23) didn't bring any news that we haven't heard about already, as far as the average American is concerned.

After the rates cuts that CDs had at the close of last week, it's refreshing to see current CD rate averages without any of the "red marks" that were present in the previous week's comparison table.

With the government set to release the figures for consumer spending and income any time now, hopes are high that the data will further strengthen growing prospects that the longest recession since World War II is finally ending.

It was a relatively quiet week for CDs and this is reflected in how CD rate averages ended up. Granted, there are a few ticks either going up or down but on the whole, CDs remained at their low levels.

Even as the Federal Reserve boldly declared only this week that the recession was coming to an end, its benchmark short-term interest rates remained low at 0% to 0.25%, further saying that rates "will stay low for a longer period of time."