Here comes GDP ...
The Commerce Department will release its third estimate of fourth-quarter gross domestic product (GDP) at 8:30 a.m. ET.
The second estimate of the value of everything produced in the US was revised to 2.5% from 2.6%, mainly because business inventories removed more from growth than was previously estimated. Economists now expect that with more complete data, the Bureau of Economic Analysis will report a 2.7% growth rate, according to Bloomberg.
Consumer spending, the biggest contributor to the economy, was unrevised at a 3.8% growth rate in the second estimate.
The release on Wednesday will include more complete data and allow us to tally the economy's growth rate for the year 2017.
Focus is now on the current quarter, as several forecasters have downgraded their estimates through the months. For example, the Atlanta Fed's GDPNow tracker plunged from a 5.4% estimate in January to 1.8% as of Wednesday.
Economists are also watching for the impact of so-called residual seasonality - a glitch in how the BEA adjusts for unique trends in the first quarter such as holiday spending - that tends to undercut growth in early estimates.