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The numbers: The U.S. grew a bit faster in the spring than previously estimated, but not enough to change the underlying growth trend in an economy that’s recovered quite rapidly from the pandemic.
Gross domestic product, the official scorecard for the U.S. economy, rose at a revised 6.6% annual pace in the second quarter, the government said Thursday.
The slight increase in GDP reflected somewhat stronger consumer spending and U.S. exports than initially reported.
The revised GDP report also included the first look at corporate profits in the second quarter. Adjusted pretax profits jumped at a 9.2% annual rate and suggest businesses have plenty of capital to continue to invest and hire.
Indeed, the economy was still expanding at a robust pace in the third quarter even as the delta variant of the coronavirus flared up and government stimulus had mostly evaporated.
Economist polled by the Wall Street Journal estimate third-quarter GDP will increase by 7%.
Read: Delta is making Americans nervous and raising fresh worries on economy
Big picture: The details of the revised GDP don’t change the 10,000 foot view of the economy. Consumers are spending plenty of money. Businesses are hiring and investing. And governments have avoided the stifling coronavirus restrictions they used early in the pandemic.
Delta is still a wild card, but the biggest problems confronting the economy are widespread shortages of labor and materials that have caused inflation to soar and threaten to slow the recovery.
Read: Delta deals small blow to economy in August, but businesses remain upbeat
Market reaction: The Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA,
and S&P 500
SPX,
were set to open narrowly mixed in Thursday trades. Revised GDP reports rarely have any effect.
