WASHINGTON Economic indicators teeter between good and bad

The Fed is prepared to trim interest rates further to spur growth.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan told a congressional panel that the economy is still sending mixed signals with some hopeful signs of stronger growth balanced against more disappointing results.
"The economy continues to be buffeted by strong cross currents," Greenspan said in testimony today before the congressional Joint Economic Committee.
In his remarks, Greenspan continued to signal that if necessary, the Fed was prepared to cut interest rates further to bolster economic growth.
He noted, as the Fed had at its meeting earlier this month, that at the present time "the probability of an unwelcome substantial fall in inflation over the next few quarters, though minor, exceeds that of a pickup in inflation."
Deflation concerns
That language tracked what Fed policy-makers said after their May 6 meeting when the central bank signaled that for the first time in more than half a century, it was more worried about the possibility of deflation -- a prolonged period of falling prices -- than inflation. The country's last bout of deflation occurred during the Great Depression of the 1930s.
Greenspan told the committee that in the weeks since the Iraq war ended, the economy had not established any firm pattern.
"We do not yet have sufficient information on economic activity following the end of hostilities to make a firm judgment about the current underlying strength of the real economy," Greenspan said.
Many economists think the Fed's new worries about the possibility of deflation have increased the odds that the central bank will cut interest rates when policy-makers next meet June 24-25.
Analysts think the debate at that meeting may not be over whether to cut rates but how large of a rate cut to provide, either the normal quarter-point move or a larger half-point cut.