Now, with the reiteration, I'm thinking they have a mole at the BEA.
Who knows? I do know that the advance estimate is scheduled for release at 8:30 on April 28 and that by then the die will have been cast.
From ZeroHedge:
Following last week's deplorable durable goods number, and the subsequent Goldman warning, i.e. "the data increase the sense of downside risk to our Q1 GDP estimate of 3.5%", Hatzius has just stepped it up a notch, adding a key adjective confirming it is just a matter of time now: "The latest real consumption figures - including revisions to earlier months - point to growth for Q1 as a whole of approximately 1.75-2.0% qoq annualized. This compares to our current forecast of +3.0%. The report therefore implies significant downside risk to our Q1 GDP estimate of +3.5% qoq annualized." We give it two weeks.
From Jan Hatzius' instanalysis on Personal Consumption data.
1. Nominal consumer spending increased by 0.7% mom in February, but part of the large increased reflected price gains. Real consumer spending increased by 0.3% mom after an unchanged reading in January. The latest real consumption figures - including revisions to earlier months - point to growth for Q1 as a whole of approximately 1.75-2.0% qoq annualized. This compares to our current forecast of +3.0%. The report therefore implies significant downside risk to our Q1 GDP estimate of +3.5% qoq annualized....MORE
