Goldman Sachs Sees Downside Q1 GDP Risk

From Jan Hatzius:
BOTTOM LINE: Trade deficit much wider than anticipated on higher import volumes; news reinforces our sense of downside risk to Q1 growth, though it's still early in the quarter. Jobless claims higher but Labor Department cites school holidays as a potential distortion.
KEY POINTS:
1. Despite a healthy rise in exports, the US trade deficit widened substantially in January. The entire increase was due to non-petroleum imports, which rose $7bn on the quarter. The vast majority of this import increase was volume rather than price-related, pushing the real goods deficit in January at $49.5bn versus a fourth-quarter average of $45.2bn. Were this (real) deficit to be sustained through the first quarter, trade would be a substantial drag on Q1 growth - about 1 1/2 points (annualized). However, trade data can be revised and Chinese New Year-related distortions can have a significant impact on US import data in the first quarter, so for the moment we would view this simply as an additional source of downside risk to our 3 1/2% real growth estimate for the quarter.

2. The jobless claims report was a significant disappointment on first glance, with new claims back up near the 400,000 mark after a much lower print last week. However, the Labor Department cited the timing of school holidays as a possible influence on the number last week. Continuing claims--the total number of people in their first 26 weeks of jobless benefits--were essentially in line with expectations, and extended benefits fell by about 200,000 (though how much of this drop was due to people exhausting benefit eligibility is unknown).