Some optimism also came from World Bank President Robert Zoellick, who said the global economy may return to growth in late 2009 or in 2010, while European banking officials also saw tentative signs the financial crisis could be easing.
Lowe's not only had better-than-expected profit, but raised its full-year forecast while noting recent signs the decline in the housing market may be slowing.
"In recent weeks, we have seen consumer confidence improve, housing turnover show signs of a bottom in certain markets and home prices slow their decline," Lowe's Chief Executive Robert Niblock said.
Wall Street stocks overall gained on Monday, following stronger share markets in Europe and Asia, amid growing signs the global economy may be pulling out of its tailspin.
Slowing Pace of Decline?
The World Bank's Zoellick, speaking in Warsaw, said the pace of decline in the global economy was set to slow.
"The question is when we will return to growth in the global system and that could be late 2009 or 2010. I don't think this will be 2011," he said.
Last week, Zoellick stressed the high degree of uncertainty still coloring the outlook for the global economy.
Many economists and policymakers are also cautiously optimistic that sharp interest rate cuts, fiscal packages and bank bailouts will eventually succeed and that the world has probably seen the worst of the deepest recession since World War Two.
European Central Bank policymaker Axel Weber said he believed the bank's efforts to boost the eurozone economy were sufficient.
"Unless things get noticeably worse, in my view, the package of measures decided until now is sufficient," Weber, who also heads Germany's Bundesbank, told the Financial Times Deutschland.
Weber also said the rate of Germany's economic decline would slow in coming months but it was too early to speak of recovery.
Any Recovery Will Take Time
Another ECB council member, George Provopoulos, said it would take time before economies recover and return to robust growth, despite the positive signs.
"Those so called 'green shoots' suggest the economy may be stabilizing," Provopoulos said in a speech to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
"It is important to keep in mind, however, that if stabilization is indeed taking place, it is at a very low level of activity. It will take some time before our economies fully recover and grow at a robust pace," he said.
Still, tentative signs of life come against a backdrop of deeper-than-feared first-quarter declines in the U.S. and euro zone economies and signs that companies around the world are still struggling with a slump in trade and demand.
Japan, its fortunes inseparable from its export markets, is expected to report its economy contracted 4.2 percent in the first quarter when it releases its gross domestic product data on Wednesday.
Credit rating agency Moody's stripped Japan of its AAA rating on its foreign currency debt on Monday, although manufacturing and consumer sentiment edged up, keeping alive hopes the storm hitting the world's No 2 economy might be abating.
Moody's combined its cut in Japan's largely symbolic foreign currency rating with an upgrade by a notch to domestic government bonds. Unlike many of its peers in the top triple-A category, Japan relies mainly on domestic funding.
Japanese Finance Minister Kaoru Yosano said the rating hike on domestic government bonds reflected the Japanese market's ability to absorb greater issuance of such paper.
Moody's said the move would unify Japanese government debt at a new Aa2 level. It coincided with a survey of Japanese manufacturers that showed sentiment edging up from record lows.
As governments from Beijing to Washington have committed trillions of dollars to kick-start their economies, growing debt and deficits have raised questions whether nations such as United States or Britain can keep their top credit grades.
"The move to lower Japan's foreign currency bond rating from Aaa opens the way for speculation about whether Moody's will take similar actions on other triple-A ratings," said Kenro Kawano, senior rates strategist at Credit Suisse in Tokyo.
