U.S. stocks opened higher but lost gains shortly after a survey of consumer sentiment by the University of Michigan and Thomson Reuters showed individuals growing more pessimistic, largely due to rising food and fuel prices. Read more on consumer sentiment.
Gross domestic product, the broadest measure of all the goods and services produced, rose at an inflation-adjusted annual rate of 3.2% in the fourth quarter, the Commerce Department said in its first estimate of the economy’s benchmark indicator. It was below economists’s estimates for a 3.5% increase. Read more on gross domestic product.
Still, the rise takes total output to its highest level since the end of 2007, when the recession started. And for the first time in 2010, the economy also benefited from a trade surplus in October to December.
Consumer spending, accounting for about 70% of demand in the U.S. economy, rose at a 4.4% rate in the fourth quarter. That’s the fastest pace since the start of 2006 and double the average rise in spending in the previous three quarters of 2010.
