Breaking: US GDP beats with 2.6%, USD moves up

Yohay Elam FXStreet

The US economy grew at an annualized pace of 2.6% in Q4 2018, slightly better than expected. For the full year, the economy grew by 3.1%, a healthy rate.

Personal consumption, the most important component, rose by 2.8%. The Core PCE stood at 1.7%.

All in all, a slight beat and the US Dollar rose. EUR/USD dropped below 1.1400 on the news, retreating from the three-week highs.

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The US was expected to report an annualized GDP growth rate of 2.3% in the fourth quarter of 2018, slower than 3.4% in the final read for Q3. The publication has been delayed due to the government shutdown, the longest in history.

The plunge in retail sales in December caused quite a few economists to raise their eyebrows and made predicting the GDP data harder.

Apart from the GDP data, initial jobless claims are due at the same time.

Earlier, markets focused on the unsuccessful Kim-Trump summit in Hanoi, Vietnam. Trade talks between the US and China and

Author

Yohay Elam

FXStreet

Yohay is in Forex since 2008 when he founded Forex Crunch, a blog crafted in his free time that turned into a fully-fledged currency website later sold to Finixio.

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