T.J. Fazio cuts a home wrap in a window on a new home construction site March 16 in West Des Moines, Iowa. Construction spending fell for a fifth straight month in February as another big drop in home building offset a slight rebound in nonresidential construction.

Washington ? New economic reports on construction spending, manufacturing and pending home sales suggest the recession may be moving closer to a bottom.

But most analysts think the low point is still months away, with more bad news likely before the economy stabilizes and begins to rebound.

“I think the best that can be said right now is that the pace of decline has slowed, but we are still heading down,” said David Wyss, chief economist at Standard & Poor’s in New York.

Wyss predicted that the recession will last until September. But he said the decline in the gross domestic product in this April-June quarter will probably be just half the 6.3 percent drop recorded in the final three months of last year.

The Commerce Department reported that construction spending dropped 0.9 percent in February, the fifth straight monthly decline but less than the expected 1.5 percent decrease.

Meanwhile, a trade group’s measure of the health of manufacturing in March showed it shrank for the 14th straight month. The Institute for Supply Management said its manufacturing index rose to 36.3 last month from 35.8 in February. Even with the small increase, the index is stuck well below the reading of 50, the dividing line between growth and recession.

March proved to be another dismal month for U.S. automakers as low consumer confidence kept buyers away. General Motors Corp. led the slide, with a 45 percent drop in sales compared with March 2008. Ford Motor Co. reported a 41 percent decline, and Chrysler LLC said sales plunged 39 percent.

But on Wall Street, stocks rose after the construction and manufacturing reports were better than expected, and the National Association of Realtors said pending home sales rebounded in February from a record low.