Even big sales incentives weren’t enough to prop up U.S. auto sales in March. Sales trailed estimates with sales at Ford Motor (F) and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCAU) showing big drops of 7.2% and 4.6%, respectively. General Motors (GM) saw a smaller than expected 1.6% increase in sales.
“If current laws generally remained unchanged, the Congressional Budget Office projects, growing budget deficits would boost that debt sharply over the next 30 years; it would reach 150% of GDP in 2047.”
Data released yesterday on growth in the EuroZone and Japan–coming after disappointing U.S. growth reported last week–certainly raise the question of whether the United States is quite as far ahead of the rest of the world’s developed economies as current market thinking believes
The U.S. economy slowed to grow at a 1.9% annualized rate in the fourth quarter, the Commerce Department reported today. That’s down from the 3.5 growth rate for GDP in the third quarter. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg had forecast 2.2% growth. For the full year the U.S. economy grew at a 1.9% rate
The global economy will grow at a rate of 2.7% in 2017, according to the World Bank forecast yesterday. That would be an improvement from the 2.3% growth in 2016, the worst growth rate since the Global Financial Crisis year of 2008. The U.S. economy is expected to be the big global growth engine with U.S. GDP climbing by 2.2% in 2017, up from 1.6% in 2016
Tomorrow, Friday december 23, we get news on new home sales in November. Coming after some market weakness this week and before the long Christmas holiday (financial markets are closed on Monday, December 26), this report has the power to set the tone for a few days. Especially because U.S. mortgage rates are up since the Federal Reserve raised interest rates on December 14.
Good enough for government work. The U.S. economy added 178,000 jobs in November, the Labor Department announced today. That was up from a revised net add of 142,000 jobs in October but below the 180,000 expected by economists surveyed by Bloomberg. Official unemployment fell to 4.6%, an eight-year low
The second revision to U.S. GDP growth in the third quarter was the charm. The U.S. economy grew at a 3.2% annualized rate in the the three months that ended in September, according to the Commerce Department. That was ahead of the 2.9% growth reported in the initial estimate and above the 3% growth rate that economists surveyed by Bloomberg were expecting.
