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People enjoy the muddy thrills and spills on a waterslide dug into a hillside in Waimauku on February 23, 2013 in Auckland, New Zealand.
Stocks slid slightly to end the week after US GDP growth missed the mark, hitting its lowest level in three years.All three major US stock indexes finished in the red on Friday, with the Dow Jones industrial average sliding the most.
We've got all the headlines, but first, the scoreboard:
- Dow: 20,940.51, -40.82, (-0.19%)
- S&P 500: 2,384.20, -4.57, (-0.19%)
- Nasdaq: 6,047.61, -1.33, (-0.02%)
- US 10-year yield: 2.282%, -0.014
- WTI crude oil: $49.11, +0.14, +0.29%
- GDP for the first quarter of 2017 came in at 0.7%. This was lower than the 1.0% expected by economists and the slowest pace of growth since 2014.
- The low GDP came in large part due to a decline in personal consumption. Personal consumption expenditures grew by only 0.3% for the first quarter, a serious drop off from the 3.5% growth in the previous quarter. Much of the drop was due to lower auto sales and energy spending.
- However, first quarter GDP is typically low. GDP has averaged a 0.6% annualized rate in the first quarter since 2013, despite trend growth rate of 2% to 2.5% over that same period
- Consumer confidence dipped unexpectedly. The consumer sentiment index from the University of Michigan slipped to 97.0. This was above March's final reading of 96.9, but below economists' expectations that the index would hold steady at its preliminary reading of 98.0.
- Trump threatened to pull out of the free trade agreement with South Korea. In an interview with Reuters, the president said he would renegotiate or terminate the US' free trade deal with South Korea after his administration finishes the NAFTA renegotiation with Canada and Mexico. He said the trade deal, which is referred to as KORUS, was "unacceptable" and "horrible."