The Bureau of Economic Analysis released the advance first quarter Gross Domestic Product (GDP) report this morning, which showed a contraction in GDP of 6.1%. That is considerably worse than the expected decline of somewhere between 4.7% and 5.1%.
This was the worst performance by the economy in consecutive quarters in more than 50 years. Despite this the market rallied as numerous economists saw positive signs in the news. They referred to declining inventories and an increase in personal consumption expenditures of 2.2% in the first quarter as signs of hope. How that latter figure coincides with the 7.8% drop in purchases by U.S. residents of goods and services for the same period is unclear but suffice it to say, this was a bad number. See for yourself.
