NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Throughout the summer and fall, nervous economists used a lot of scary-sounding "D" words to describe the direction the U.S. economy might take -- "double-dip," "deflation" and even, in some rare cases, "depression."

Following a sudden flood of shiny, happy economic news released just before Thanksgiving, another "D" word could be used to describe all those doomsday scenarios: "doubtful."

"All the folks writing stories about the double dip ought to just delete that file," said Ken Goldstein, economist at the Conference Board, a private research firm that publishes a closely watched monthly index of consumer sentiment. "There are no guarantees, but the train is leaving the station."

On Wednesday, the Labor Department said new applications for unemployment insurance tumbled to 364,000 in the week ended Nov. 23 from a revised 381,000 the prior week. Economists, on average, expected 383,000 new claims, according to Briefing.com.

It was the lowest level for jobless claims since Feb. 17, 2001, when the long deterioration of the job market had just begun. By the time it was over, more than 1.8 million Americans had gotten pink slips. The labor market recovered a bit this summer, but relapsed in early fall.

"The job market has been improving; it's just been very, very slow," Josh Feinman, chief economist at Deutsche Bank Asset Management, told CNNfn's CNN/Money Morning program. "But we are starting to turn the corner and are likely to see job creation [get] a little better as we turn into 2003."

That job creation certainly wasn't happening in October; the Conference Board said Wednesday that its Help-Wanted Advertising Index, which measures help-wanted ads in 51 major U.S. newspapers, fell to 40 in October from 43 in November.

And the Labor Department's jobless claims report showed the number of continued claims -- people drawing benefits for more than a week -- rose to 3.65 million last week from a revised 3.56 million in the prior week.

"While job losses may be ebbing, we have yet to see any signs of outsized hiring," said Anthony Chan, chief economist at Banc One Investment Advisors. "This will not come ... until we transition from a slow-growing expansion to a normal economic recovery."

Also on Wednesday, the Commerce Department said personal income rose 0.1 percent in October while personal spending rose 0.4 percent. Economists, on average, expected income to rise 0.1 percent and spending to rise 0.3 percent, according to Briefing.com.

Personal income rose 0.4 percent in September, but spending fell 0.4 percent that month.

Consumer spending is closely watched by Wall Street and economists since it fuels about two-thirds of the U.S. economy. It has been remarkably resilient despite the recession that began in March 2001, nearly 1.8 million job cuts, last year's terrorist attacks, a wave of corporate accounting scandals, and falling stock prices.

After falling for five straight months, a key gauge of consumer sentiment, the Conference Board said Tuesday its consumer confidence index rose in November.

Later Wednesday morning, the University of Michigan revised its measure of consumer sentiment for the month of November to 84.2 from an initial reading of 85.0, according to a Reuters report -- still an improvement over October's reading of 80.6. Economists, on average, expected the university to leave its index unrevised.

"With confidence rebounding, that tells me the holiday shopping season could be a lot better than the nattering nabobs of negativity have been saying," said Joel Naroff, president and chief economist at Naroff Economic Advisors, Inc.

Throughout the downturn, consumer confidence got a boost from the housing market, which benefited from rock-bottom interest rates that drove demand for houses, which boosted home prices, improving homeowners' balance sheets and fueled a refinancing boom that cut mortgagees' monthly payments and allowed people to borrow against more equity.

In data released this week, the housing market showed little sign of cooling off. On Monday, the National Association of Realtors said existing-home sales jumped in October to the third-highest monthly rate ever, while the Commerce Department reported Tuesday new-home sales had fallen a bit in October but still were galloping near a record pace.

While some economists are concerned by the dark side of the hot housing market -- the possibility of prices getting out of hand, risking a dramatic fallback, and the increased rate of mortgage foreclosures and delinquencies -- most are not concerned that such dangers pose a threat to the whole economy.

Meanwhile, consumer confidence can only be further helped by the recent improvement in the U.S. stock market, which got a lift from the data Wednesday. Treasury bond prices fell.

Rising stocks also could help lift the spirits of U.S. businesses, which might encourage them to produce more and hire more workers.

In a sign that businesses might already have started spending again, orders for long-lasting goods made in U.S. factories jumped 2.8 percent in October, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday, following a 4.6-percent drop in September and trumping analysts' expectations for a gain of just 1.8 percent.

"The overall business-spending picture looks grim because airlines are not buying aircraft and power-generating firms are not buying turbines," said James Glassman, senior U.S. economist at J.P. Morgan. "Aside from those things, there's a broad-based acceleration going on -- spending on almost every category [of goods] except those two is looking normal. Behind the scenes, there's a normal cyclical process building."

Glassman pointed out that businesses have also been encouraged by aggressive intervention from the Federal Reserve -- which cut its target for a key short-term interest rate again early in November -- and talk by President Bush and members of Congress about the possibility of providing more economic relief, along with what seems to be at least a temporary stabilization in the situation with Iraq.

Enhancing the view of rosier business sentiment was a report from Chicago-area purchasing managers that their index of regional manufacturing activity showed expansion after two straight months of contraction.

"The improvement in the stock market is allowing the hugely favorable monetary and fiscal environment to do its work -- just as it was in the spring before the stock market melted down," said Ian Shepherdson, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics Ltd.

When the Commerce Department revised upward its estimate of third-quarter gross domestic product (GDP) Tuesday, it said business spending shrank in the quarter -- but most of that shrinkage was due to a completely disastrous quarter for investment in structures. Business spending on equipment and software, on the other hand, showed expansion for the second straight quarter.

But the GDP report also showed that corporate profits shrank for the third quarter in a row, a situation that will need to improve if businesses are to keep spending.

"Sustained economic growth is dependent on profit growth," Paul Kasriel, director of economic research at Northern Trust, wrote in a research note Tuesday. "Without profits, there will be no new hiring of workers and no new capital spending."