The economic readings have come in weaker than expected, and that was leading up to a weaker-than-expected report on gross domestic product (GDP) for the first quarter. The Commerce Department showed that first-quarter GDP in the United States rose by 2.5% on the headline number. Bloomberg had estimates of 3.1% and Dow Jones had estimates of 3.2% for the first quarter. The good news is that this was still much higher than the 0.4% revised gain of the fourth quarter.

On the price component, the chain-weighted price index was up by only 0.9%. Bloomberg had an estimate of 1.4% for the first quarter.

Government spending was said to be down by 4.1%, but that was down by 7% in the prior quarter. Business inventories accounted for about a full 1% of the 2.5% growth. Real final sales were up by 1.5%.

S&P 500 futures were down 3.50 at 1578.25 and DJIA futures were down 22 points at 14,631 on last look.

We had projected that the entire slew of economic data was calling for more weakness ahead. Earnings season so far has brought on higher-than-expected earnings, but revenues have been close to 1% on the light side. After tallying these issues up, it seemed more than just likely that you should have expected a lower GDP reading than the unaltered estimates were projecting.

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