Today’s installment in the taper saga is unfortunate for equities. Overnight US data was solid. The advance Q3 GDP number surprised to the upside:
Real gross domestic product — the output of goods and services produced by labor and property located in the United States — increased at an annual rate of 2.8 percent in the third quarter of 2013 (that is, from the second quarter to the third quarter), according to the “advance” estimate released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. In the second quarter, real GDP increased 2.5 percent.
The increase in real GDP in the third quarter primarily reflected positive contributions from personal consumption expenditures (PCE), private inventory investment, exports, residential fixed investment, nonresidential fixed investment, and state and local government spending that were partly offset by a negative contribution from federal government spending. Imports, which are a subtraction in the calculation of GDP, increased.
The acceleration in real GDP growth in the third quarter primarily reflected a deceleration in imports and accelerations in private inventory investment and in state and local government spending that were partly offset by decelerations in exports, in nonresidential fixed investment, and in PCE.
The price index for gross domestic purchases, which measures prices paid by U.S. residents, increased 1.8 percent in the third quarter, compared with an increase of 0.2 percent in the second. Excluding food and energy prices, the price index for gross domestic purchases increased 1.5 percent in the third quarter, compared with an increase of 0.8 percent in the second.
And there you have it. Also solid for the night was Weekly Unemployment Claims:
In the week ending November 2, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 336,000, a decrease of 9,000 from the previous week’s revised figure of 345,000. The 4-week moving average was 348,250, a decrease of 9,250 from the previous week’s revised average of 357,500.
The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.2 percent for the week ending October 26, unchanged from the prior week’s unrevised rate. The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending October 26 was 2,868,000, an increase of 4,000 from the preceding week’s revised level of 2,864,000. The 4-week moving average was 2,866,000, a decrease of 8,500 from the preceding week’s revised average of 2,874,500.
Stocks fell solidly and US dollar was also strongly bid (though that was also the result of an unexpected ECB rate cut).
But if stocks and the currency saw solid growth as a problem, long bonds looked through the headline numbers to weak GDP internals, with a decent bid driving down yields 1%. From Goldman:
BOTTOM LINE: GDP grew more quickly than expected in Q3, but the surprise came mainly from a larger-than-expected inventory contribution and a smaller-than-expected decline in government spending. Consumer spending and business fixed investment were less strong. We started our Q4 GDP tracking estimate at 1.5%.
- GDP grew at a faster-than-expected 2.8% rate in Q3 (vs. consensus +2.0%). Personal consumption expenditures, the largest component of GDP, rose a modest 1.5% (vs consensus +1.6%), with strong growth in goods consumption offset by meager growth in services consumption. Business fixed investment increased at a disappointing 1.6% rate, with a 3.7% decline in equipment investment. Offsetting slightly disappointing PCE growth and sluggish business fixed investment, inventory accumulation contributed eight-tenths to headline growth, while federal government spending posted a smaller-than-expected 1.7% decline. (Federal spending has tended to show some degree of residual seasonality in recent years, with stronger growth in Q2 and Q3, and weaker growth in Q1 and Q4.) In addition, residential investment – which reflects new construction with a lag – rose a solid 14.6%. Stripping out the contribution from inventory investment, real final sales increased at a moderate 2.0% pace.
- In light of the composition of Q3 growth, driven by a substantial boost from inventories and a smaller-than-expected decline in government spending, we started our Q4 tracking at 1.5%, five-tenths below our prior assumption of 2.0%. Inventory investment tends to subtract from growth following quarters showing a positive contribution, while we expect the smaller-than-expected decline in Q3 government spending to result in even weaker Q4 spending than we had anticipated.
