(Image source: International Business Times)

BY JIM FLINK

Jobless claims are down. The stock market is up. As is consumer confidence. The holiday tidings this season -- seem to be quite optimistic.

Here’s CNBC.

“It really does suggest that things are getting better.  A few of them.  Of course today, we got the initial jobless claims, which showed fewer Americans are lining up for unemployment benefits, and then you have consumer confidence which is at its best since June, Americans are spending big on holiday gifts, gas prices are falling, so all in all Louise, really not bad for an economy....”

Most analysts had expected jobless claims to spike. Because of that, one analyst tells Bloomberg, it’s hard to see bad news here.

“According to the Department of Labor, these were very clean numbers, none of the states had to be estimated, which sometimes can result in a lot of volatility in these numbers.  But these were clean, and they’re going to lead to private forecasters, uh, having pretty lofty expectations of December payrolls.”

Marketwatch notes, as easy as it might be to get giddy -- there’s plenty of reason to stay sober right now.

“Despite the improvement, sentiment remains at historically low levels. Last year, the index stood at 74.5.  The sentiment gauge, which covers how consumers view their personal finances as well as business and buying conditions, averaged about 87 in the year before the start of the most recent recession. Economists watch sentiment data to get a feel for the direction of consumer spending.”

There was one more small fly in the ointment -- a downward adjustment of Q3 GDP. Even with that, the markets took off on a holiday helping of good news.

The Wall Street Journal’s panel notes, the markets -- like the trend they’re seeing.

“So again, keep maintaning the trend that they’ve been doing for the last several weeks.  Keep going down further from that 400,000 mark.  The market, of course, likes that.  And it’s a good sign.  It’s definitely a good sign.”

But just -- how -- good? CNBC’s Jim Cramer writes on The Street -- you can’t take U.S. figures in a vacuum, without considering Europe. And too much needs to happen there -- to celebrate just yet.

“Oh, if it were only that simple. If it were only like the old days, with a garden-variety recession and a chance that we could come out of it with a couple of good indicators … Unfortunately, it isn't ...  We can be sure that bulls will come out and say that if we could just put together some growth then we will be back in action ... We need to see some sign of positive business momentum in Spain.”

Even with the good news, most are taking it with a grain of salt. The Los Angeles Times notes, most consumers say 2011 was a bad year -- and the majority don’t expect things to improve significantly in 2012.