estimate on fourth-quarter GDP out at 8:30 EST

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In a way this is a meaningless thread but in another way it asks questions about is the country going in the right direction? What is prosperity? Will the estimated GDP meet expectations or will it miss?

Futures edge down after record close, GDP data on tap | Reuters

A preliminary estimate on fourth-quarter gross domestic product, due at 8:30 a.m. EST, is expected to show growth of 2.5 percent. Market participants will look for signs of whether a severe winter hurt growth in the quarter.

 

[iamwhatiseem]

There was a story today about how capital spending, re-investments are way down.
Basically, companies are not spending their money on themselves, they are either keeping it - or investing it in the bubble market.
What does that tell you?

 

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2.4% oh, so close. That was a real cliff-hanger there for about 15 minutes. Summary from Business Insider below. In other news live coverage of the House floor begins at 9:00 EST, Congress.gov | Library of Congress.

Q4 2013 US GDP Second Estimate - Business Insider

Real gross domestic product -- the output of goods and services produced by labor and property located in the United States -- increased at an annual rate of 2.4 percent in the fourth quarter of 2013 (that is, from the third quarter to the fourth quarter), according to the "second" estimate released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. In the third quarter, real GDP increased 4.1 percent.

The GDP estimate released today is based on more complete source data than were available for the "advance" estimate issued last month. In the advance estimate, the increase in real GDP was 3.2 percent. With this second estimate for the fourth quarter, an increase in personal consumption expenditures (PCE) was smaller than previously estimated (see "Revisions" on page 3).

The increase in real GDP in the fourth quarter primarily reflected positive contributions from PCE, exports, nonresidential fixed investment, and private inventory investment that were partly offset by negative contributions from federal government spending, residential fixed investment, and state and local government spending. Imports, which are a subtraction in the calculation of GDP, increased.

The deceleration in real GDP growth in the fourth quarter reflected a deceleration in private inventory investment, a larger decrease in federal government spending, and downturns in residential fixed investment and in state and local government spending that were partly offset by accelerations in exports, in PCE, and in nonresidential fixed investment and a deceleration in imports.

Read more: Q4 2013 US GDP Second Estimate - Business Insider