Small business owners remain skeptical about economic recovery, but they are showing signs of more optimism--or at least less pessimism--according to the National Federation of Independent Business.  The NFIB's Small Business Optimism Index has topped a reading of 90 for the first time since August of 2008:

William Dunkelberg and Holly Wade, the report's authors, find very little positive in their reading of the data.  But one area that stands out is sales, where they see marked improvement:

The net percent of all owners (seasonally adjusted) reporting higher nominal sales in the past three months improved 10 points to a net negative 15 percent, still negative but a huge improvement. It is the best reading since September 2008. The net percent of owners expecting real sales gains gained nine points, increasing to six net percent of all owners (seasonally adjusted). Small business owners continued to liquidate inventories and weak sales trends gave little reason to order new stock. A net negative 18 percent of all owners reported gains in inventories, 10 points better than December’s record liquidation reading. Plans to add to inventories improved five points to a net negative two percent of all firms (seasonally adjusted).

Read the full report here.