Gold Prices Fall Amid Rate Jitters; Copper Steady as China Stimulus Eyed 
Last week, the United States reported its best Q1 GDP since 2015, as the economy expanded at 3.2 percent, almost 40 percent higher than the street estimate. However, don’t get too excited.
- Many analysts have already suggested that devils are in the details, pointing to that fact the consumer spending slowed significantly, while one of the major contributors to the GDP was inventory, which considered as an asset while calculating GDP. Inventory build contributed 0.65 percent to the GDP, without which, the GDP would have been 2.55 percent, a lot closer to 2.3 percent expected.
- Inventories would decline going ahead, just like it always does and that would impact future GDP numbers. Another Key component was government spending, which added 0.41 percent to the GDP- yet another volatile component.
- Moreover, final domestic demand was just 1.3 percent, the weakest since Q2 2013.
However, these all have already been discussed, what we would like to point out in this article - data which have been released this week.
- The manufacturing revival in the United States is showing a slowdown. Job growth in the sector has slowed down.
- In April, according to the ADP employment report, the manufacturing sector added 5,000 jobs after losing 2,000 in the previous month. ISM manufacturing PMI was just 52.8, the weakest since October 2016.
- Moreover, the Atlanta Federal Reserve released its latest ‘GDPNow’ forecast for the 2nd quarter and it doesn’t look good. The Nowcast model suggests GDP growth for the second quarter is at just 1.2 percent.
Unless economic activity recovers in the coming two months, the second quarter could be one of the worst in years.
