UBS: Today's Positive GDP Report Was WORSE Than Last Month's Negative GDP Report
BloombergDrew Matus, UBSThe BEA just released its second estimate of U.S. fourth quarter GDP.
Total output expanded 0.5 percent – a marked increase over the initial estimate, which showed a 0.1 percent contraction in the U.S. economy.
However, personal consumption growth, which clocked in at 2.2 percent in the initial estimate and was expected to rise to 2.3 percent in today's release, actually slowed to 2.1 percent.
UBS economist Drew Matus was just on CNBC following the release.
Matus said he would have preferred the initial estimate, given the details:
The GDP number – fine, it went up, but the details got worse. So, in a way, I would have rather had it stay negative and had the old details that I had before.
The consumption number was revised lower. I never like to see it. I know it was only a tenth [of a percentage point], but people were expecting it to go higher.
On a forward-looking basis, though, Matus is optimistic. He told CNBC regarding where the economy is at now in the first quarter, "I think we're getting better, and I think the claims numbers point to that. That's actually the story of the day."