NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Looking at the day's coming economic reports seems pretty mundane as I sit and ponder the news that some Hewlett-Packard scientists have discovered a gizmo that will replace the transistor (does anyone remember transistor radios?) and allow teensy-eensy nano-computers to be built.

But I have no idea how a "crossbar latch" would work, let alone what transistors really do, so let me continue on with what I do know.

Two themes are in store for today: manufacturing and the consumer.

Lately there's been decent-to-good news on factory output and there's no reason to expect it won't continue with the monthly ISM survey of manufacturing coming out today. Businesses are more confident, hence all these mergers of late, and they have cash to invest and the outlook seems bright.

Not-so-good news is expected for auto sales, however, due to bad weather in January and the fact that the car companies lifted the incentives.

After yesterday's strong personal income report bulls will shrug off any weakness in spending as a temporary pullback. Bears will wonder if the overly-indebted consumer is showing signs of fatigue.

I'll keep wondering just how fast computers would be that operate at speeds 1000 times faster than those in use today, and what kind of teensy-eensy creatures are going to build those nanocomputers anyway?

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-- Kathleen Hays is economics correspondent for CNN and contributes to Lou Dobbs Tonight.