Obama sees "glimmers of hope" in economy

By Matt Spetalnick

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama said on Friday the recession-hit U.S. economy was showing "glimmers of hope" despite remaining under strain and promised further steps in coming weeks to tackle the financial crisis.

"We've still got a lot of work to do," Obama told reporters after a meeting with economic and regulatory teams plus Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke. But he added, "We're starting to see progress."

Obama spoke a day after encouraging trade and jobless figures pushed stocks higher, and White House economic adviser Lawrence Summers predicted the economy would emerge from a sense of "freefall" by the middle of the year.

Less than three months into his presidency, Obama stopped short of declaring that the recession he inherited from predecessor George W. Bush was bottoming out.

But he offered a somewhat more upbeat tone than he has recently on the state of the economy, which is locked in its worst crisis in decades. "What we're starting to see is glimmers of hope across the economy," he said.

"Over the next several weeks, you'll be seeing additional actions by the administration," he added but gave no details.

Obama made no mention of "stress tests" being conducted at 19 major U.S. banks. The results, due at the end of April, are anxiously awaited by the financial markets.

The White House had said Obama was to receive a status report on those appraisals on Friday. Attempting to assess banks' capital needs, the government is testing how they would fare under more adverse economic conditions than are expected.