Auto sales also near bottom?

That might be a stretch, but optimists could see another mildly encouraging sign in today's sales numbers -- only because expectations had been truly awful. Enough buyers trickled back to showrooms to keep GM, Toyota, Ford Motor Co., Chrysler LLC, Honda Motor Co. and Nissan Motor Co. from matching projections for bigger decreases in a month in which job losses increased and consumer confidence remained low. And most of the companies' battered shares are responding: