Editor’s Note: Liz Peek is a financial columnist and the author of wOw’s SHEconomics. 

I want a Valentine’s present! Chocolates, roses, bling – I don’t care; consider it therapy. I am tired of this downturn, tired of winter, tired of all the squabbling in Washington – I need a little pick-me-up!

This spoiled rant is good news. For the past several months I have been on a strict spending diet, reacting to the beating my portfolio has taken and the panicky feeling that the economy was on the verge of collapse. Everyone I know has cut back – even seriously wealthy people who don’t need to. Saks Fifth Avenue reported a 24% plunge in January sales. Other high-end vendors are in the same boat. Consider this: Allergan reported Wednesday that Botox sales in the fourth quarter were down 3%. I mean come on! Can this continue? I don’t think so. Suddenly, I want something, and I doubt that I’m alone.

While there are millions of Americans in deep financial trouble, there are many more millions that still have jobs and income, and have been, like me, paralyzed by all the gloom. All they need is a little confidence that the world is not coming to an end, and spending will flatten. There are indeed some reasons for optimism.

wOw women – you heard it here first – like a faint breeze that riffles the grass and that signals a front coming through, there are tiny signs that a bottom is forming.

For months I have told you that we needed to see housing stabilize before the economy could sort itself out. Recent reports are encouraging. Existing home sales were up 6.7% in December compared to November, beating expectations, and inventories declined to 9.3 months from 11.2 months. Also, the rate of decline in housing prices has dropped. In November, the most recent data available, prices were off a hefty 18% year-over-year, but the slide is decelerating. Programs announced by Citigroup and other institutions to help homeowners avoid foreclosure combined with lower house prices are finally having some impact.

Moreover, credit conditions are definitely improving. Institutions are beginning to buy highly rated corporate debt, and indeed new issue activity has picked up. Even speculative-grade issuers are seeing some action, after nearly five months of being shut out of the markets altogether. Of more importance to you and me is that banks are loosening their purse strings, and indicating a greater willingness to lend. The rate of decline in unemployment claims is slowing, and the most recent indicators of manufacturing activity show a slight uptick compared to December. The yield curve is becoming steeper, usually a good sign, and commodity prices appear to be stabilizing.

Wall Street’s top-rated economists at ISI publish something called the Economic Diffusion Index (which sounds like something served in a tall glass with ice); it incorporates all the economic and market indicators they follow and, they say, “looks a little better.” Further, they say “the rate of decline in economic activity is moderating.” They ascribe the slight improvement to the huge number of stimulus efforts being undertaken worldwide – every country in the world is handing out tax rebates or pumping up government spending or underwriting the banking sector. Even China, which has suffered a major blow to export demand, is seeing a marginal increase in demand. Perhaps that’s why the Chinese market is up 23% from the November lows.

Certainly it is too early to celebrate. Car and home sales are still drastically low, and more than half a million people will probably lose their jobs this month alone. That is cause for mourning, not elation. The news over the next several quarters will sound awful. But at least there are signs that a base for recovery is beginning to build.