GDP disappoints, The Dollar Continues to Present Solid Gains

It was a GDP day yesterday, as two of the largest economies showed their growth results. The U.K took the stage first, showing negative growth of -0.2%. Even though the result didn’t deviate too much from the expected result of -0.1%, it was still better than the 2nd quarter’s result of -0.3%. The mild increase in economic growth was attributed to construction, which had increased in the third quarter.

The U.S also grabbed the spot light, prior to the opening bell, releasing their GDP and existing home sales figures. The final estimate for real GDP in the third quarter came in under expectations of at 2.2%, 0.6 percentage points lower than the preliminary estimate and an even more significant 1.3 points below the advance estimate. The details of the report revealed weakness in personal consumption, investments and government consumption. One must note that the two numbers from the U.S and the U.K spooked investors as the results showed that the largest economies are still dealing with a slow recovery.

Furthermore, the U.S released its existing home sales, showing that prices are now on the rise. The numbers jumped by 8.5%, 6.54M, presenting a sizeable increase, similar to October’s increase of 9.5%. It is important to note that when excluding one month of declines the housing market has been recuperating at a steady pace since April. When taking a glance at the following chart one can see the increase in sales since the start of the year.

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U.S stocks continued their climb higher despite the worse than expected GDP number and finished the session with gains. AIG increased by over 10% after it decided not to pursue an IPO for Chartis, its property and casualty division. Once again, yesterday’s session was characterized by a bounce at the start of the session, which then led to consolidation. Even though stocks continue to show resilience, gains are due to spikes at the start of the session and not continuous buying throughout the intraday sessions.

This time round, the Technology led the way higher, increasing by over 0.80%, while utilities dragged on the session, closing with a loss of -0.83%. The S&P500 finished the day with a gain of 0.36%.

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