Economic activity in the U.S. grew at an annualized rate of 1.9% in the third quarter. Economists polled by Dow Jones had expected the first look at U.S. economic growth in the third quarter to be 1.6%.
The Commerce Department on Wednesday said economic activity in the U.S. grew at an annualized rate of 1.9% in the third quarter, down slightly from the 2% pace in the second quarter. Economists polled by Dow Jones had expected the first look at U.S. economic growth in the third quarter to come in at a 1.6% rate.
The better-than-expected print was the result of continued consumer spending as well as government expenditures, the government said. Personal consumption expenditures, a gauge of spending by American households, rose at a 2.9% annualized rate while government spending grew at a 2% rate.
Imports, which are a subtraction in the calculation of GDP, increased during the third quarter. The most recent report on the U.S. trade deficit showed the imbalance at $54.9 billion at the end of August as imports outpace exports in the last full month of summer.
Companies hired 125,000 employees in October, according to ADP and Moody’s Analytics, 25,000 more than expected by economists polled by Dow Jones.
Medium-size businesses, those employing 50 to 499 people, led the pace, hiring 64,000 people. Large businesses added 44,000 jobs while small businesses saw jobs expansion of 17,000.
Payrolls within the services sector increased by 138,000 this month, led by a 41,000 increase in the education and health services space. Trade, transportation and utilities businesses added 32,000 payrolls.
However, payrolls in goods-production businesses decreased by 13,000 in October.
September payrolls were also revised down 93,000, a decrease of 42,000 from the ADP/Moody’s Analytics survey on Oct. 2.
MacDailyNews Take: Hopefully these signs of resilience outweigh any negative factors as a rising tide lifts all boats and consumer spending is a boon for companies like Apple!
better than who expected? potus says the economy is best ever in history?!?!?! logic disconnect!
Wait, Trump said with the tax cut the economy would grow between 3-5% a year and would pay for itself. The economists said no, that would not happen. Now at 1.9% and a trillion dollars a year in deficit spending we now know who was right.
Currentinterest, you are correct. Trump is an economic rube whose policies serve only to weaken the country. Quarterly GDP numbers have been steadily declining ever since pumpkin face took over. Sad.
Gotta factor in all of Trump’s other initiatives, like the tariff trade war.
Shhhhh. Don’t let Goeber know that Don the Con’s initiatives have all been damaging to the economy.
Short term, Cook can buy back shares and make AAPL look good. Long term, consumer and federal debt are a growing disaster, without any leadership fixing the problems. Instead we are fed tweets and increasingly blatant lies directly from Goeb’s hero…
Normally holiday season offers major earnings and a sizeable bump in consumer spending. Thanks to isolationism and xenophobia fearmonger in chief, even those expectations are tamped down:
“…profit growth forecasts for the next four quarters have been revised lower, even as expectations of a drop in third-quarter earnings eased to 1.6%, compared with a 2.2% fall at the start of the month.
“Estimates in aggregate are coming down for 2020 and that’s one of the most telling things that’s happening in the markets,” said Thomas Martin, senior portfolio manager at GlobAlt Investments in Atlanta.
Shares of tech heavyweight Apple Inc (AAPL.O) and social media giant Facebook Inc (FB.O) fell ahead of their earnings reports due after the bell. They were the biggest drags on the Nasdaq. ”
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-stocks/sp-500-dow-tread-water-on-mixed-earnings-fed-decision-eyed-idUSKBN1X91BW
I highly doubt that Airpods will buoy AAPL stock enough to make a difference, especially given the rocky rollouts of OS updates and tepid reviews of Apple media.
LOL… snot goeb.
MDN ..the economic stats you show are coincident indicators.. what you need to show are near future economic indicators ..which have been falling signaling downturn in growth rate. A rising tide lifts only the few wealthy boats .. 80 20 rule
Sorry but you got this one wrong
Wait 6 months