GDP Q4 first estimate preview - Nomura

Analysts at Nomura offered a preview to today's Q4 GDP, first estimate for the USA.

Key Quotes:

"Incoming data suggest that the economy grew steadily in Q4 2016, albeit at a slower pace than in Q3.

In particular, residential fixed investment likely improved strongly in Q4 considering favorable single-family data in October and November.

We expect nonresidential investment to show a modest improvement from the previous quarter, as indicators for structures, equipment and intellectual properties were all favorable for growth.

Moreover, strong improvement in inventory investment in Q4 was likely positive for GDP growth. Most recently, the strong increase in wholesale inventory data and improvement in the goods trade balance reported today led us to raise our Q4 GDP forecast by 0.1pp to 1.9% q-o-q (Consensus: 2.2%)."