US third quarter GDP revised upwards, but slightly below forecasts

Wall Street is expected to open a little lower after US GDP figures came in slightly below expectations. The country's economic growth in the third quarter was revised upwards from 2.5% to 2.6%, but this was below forecasts of around 2.8%. But figures so far suggest growth in the US accelerated in the fourth quarter, so no one is getting too worried about the miss. The Dow Jones Industrial Average down a couple of points, while the dollar has slipped back against the euro. Rob Carnell at ING Bank said: Despite being a little softer than expected, US growth in the third quarter still came in at around trend (which we believe is around 2.5%), and the future suggests trend or a little above (helped by new fiscal stimulus), which will help to close what is likely still a very large output gap, and help remove any potential for this economy to slip into a deflationary death spiral. And all of this - along with worse than expected UK GDP numbers - has done nothing to stop the FTSE 100 heading remorselessly towards 6000. It is now up 20.16 points at 5971.96.