...maybe...

Goldman Sachs, in its latest ECS Markets Research report, finds mixed evidence -- in factory output data and related surveys from the U.S., Europe and China -- that the global economy might be approaching a turning point:

Anecdotal evidence suggests some light on the industrial side...[there's been] an abatement in the rate at which new orders are falling [inflection point!]....inventory-to-sales ratios have tentatively turned down as new orders have bounced while inventories have remained under control or fallen....a trough in the global industrial cycle may be in sight

But the report warns final demand in the US and Europe remains pretty week; evidence of a coming industrial upturn mixed, scattered and limited, and Asian exports still in free-fall. And even if the cycle turns, "good growth is unlikely to resume for some time," the report says. Translation: a wrenching, Japan-sized L-shaped recovery is a real possibility even if a turning point is upon us.

Well, it's a start.

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More from the great Ambrose Evans-Pritchard. A great overview of these fledgeling glimmers of stabilization, and maybe recovery.