July 27, 2024

The second-quarter economic growth numbers beat expectations, coming in at 2.8 percent, fueling a mini-freak out as the numbers broke during Fox Business Network's Morning with Maria.

To say Bartiromo was nonplussed about the figures is an understatement.

All right, let's get the breaking news right now.

First read of second quarter GDP out.

Cheryl, start with the numbers.

Cheryl.

So it came in stronger than economists were thinking.

2.8% is the first read for the second quarter.

The estimate was 2%.

And remember, we only had a 1.4% read in Q1.

So better than expected.

Durable goods, though.

The month over month number, negative 6.6%.

Wow, that's a big number.

That's a big number because we were looking for a gain of .3%.

Now, if you strip out transports, it's up 0.5%, which is a little bit better than expected.

Core cap goods orders up 1%.

Street was only looking for a gain of 0.2%.

So that's better than expected.

Claims, about the same, guys. 235,000 on initial and 1.85 million on continuing, which is basically in line with what we're expecting, Maria.

All right, and 235,000 on jobless claims compared to the estimate, which was 237,000.

Jan, your reaction to these numbers?

I mean, on the jobless claims, I think that this is very close to consensus.

Probably not really much to discuss.

I think at these levels, there's no alarm to sound about the job market yet.

Yeah, and durable goods down 6.6%.

Seems like a big number.

These are items, obviously, meant to last six months or more, and big ticket items.

Yeah, and also very volatile.

So I think that these really get adjusted, then, up and down quite a lot.

The GDP at 2.8%, you have to believe we're going to see a revision there, right?

Is that what you were going to say?

Are we going to see a revision on second quarter GDP, Rebecca?

I've seen the most optimistic fairytale numbers I've ever seen in my life in this.

I just don't understand.

Come on.

We are not going to 2.8% annualized.

That's not happening.

And this is going to be revised downward.

I mean, what is bringing it up so much, Cheryl?

Why is it 2.8?

Who are you going to believe? These facts and figures, or my outrage and skepticism?

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