U.S. third estimate of Q2 GDP growth unchanged at 4.2 pct

The third estimate of the U.S. second quarter GDP data remained unchanged at 4.2 percent sequentially. Looking at the details, updated estimates indicated higher consumption spending on goods, higher government spending and lower imports growth, which taken together contributed to the GDP. Nevertheless, these revisions were countered by lower inventory investment. Final sales to domestic producers were upwardly revised by one-tenth to 4 percent. In all, the changes recorded today were minor, and give little additional information.

Personal consumption spending growth remained the same at 3.8 percent at the headline level. Within details, goods consumption was upwardly revised, led by non-durables, specifically energy goods, but was countered by lower services consumption. Government spending was upwardly revised by two-tenths, led by state and local government investment, much of which was in structures. Turning to private investment, residential, equipment and structures investment were upwardly revised, but were partly countered by a downward revision to intellectual property investment, noted Barclays in a research report.

Meanwhile, total imports were downwardly revised, driven by services imports, while goods exports were upwardly revised a bit. Nevertheless, the overall contribution of net exports was widely unchanged. Finally, inventory investment was downwardly revised such that its drag from GDP increased two-tenths, to 1.2 percentage points.

At 16:00 GMT the FxWirePro's Hourly Strength Index of US Dollar was highly bullish at 132.556. For more details on FxWirePro's Currency Strength Index, visit http://www.fxwirepro.com/currencyindex