The stock market’s annual performance is comfortably in the black again. After a brief slump into negative territory on a year-over-year price basis in late-September and early October, the S&P 500 is higher by 4.9% through Oct. 21. Is that a sign that the economy will keep growing? History offers some evidence for responding with a cautious “yes.”
Daily Archives: October 24, 2011
A Precarious Optimism For Q3 GDP
Worries about a new recession have been on a roll over the past month, but some forecasters are having second thoughts. “The U.S. economy probably grew in the third quarter at the fastest pace this year, easing anxiety that the recovery was on the verge of stalling, economists said before a report this week.” Bloomberg reports. “Gross domestic product, the value of all goods and services produced, rose at a 2.5 percent annual rate after advancing 1.3 percent in the previous three months, according to the median forecast of 68 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News before the Commerce Department’s Oct. 27 release. Orders for business equipment rose in September and new-home sales stabilized, other data may show.”