The U.S. economy grew at a 2.8 percent annual rate in the final three months of last year, the fastest growth in 2011. Americans spent more on cars and trucks, and companies restocked their shelves at the strongest pace in nearly two years. But growth in the October-December quarter -- and all of last year -- was held back by the biggest annual government spending cuts in four decades.
The economy appears to be heading into a rare, but oft-predicted, scenario of strong growth and low inflation called "Goldilocks." While it's been called before, experts might be right this time around.
It's easy to be pessimistic these days. Libya's civil war, surging oil prices and the disaster in Japan have combined forces to send financial markets tumbling. But the cold, hard facts about the economy paint a more optimistic picture.
Ford reported Tuesday that its sales in February rose 14% compared to a year ago, in part due to strong sales of the revamped Ford Explorer sports-utility vehicle, the Fusion midsized sedan and the Ford Escape compact SUV. Total sales for the month hit 156,626.
Ford plans to invest $600 million in a Kentucky plant to build the next-generation Escape SUV, creating an 1,800 additional jobs, the automaker said Thursday. The new jobs will be added incrementally after the Louisville Assembly plant is rehabbed and reopened late next year.
Manufacturing activity in the mid-Atlantic region unexpectedly surged in November. The Philly Fed's Business Outlook Survey index jumped to 22.5 in November from 1 in October, its highest reading since December 2009.
Investors got more evidence today that the manufacturing sector expansion continued into late summer/early fall. The key ex-transportation component also came in higher, at 0.4%. And the ex-defense number rose 1.9%. A solid month overall.
The far-sighted ones are looking beyond the election and Fed and seeing a robust global manufacturing rebound and impressive corporate earnings. These strong fundamentals are finally overcoming risk aversion -- and could set the stage for an equity rally.
Manufacturing activity in the mid-Atlantic region showed modest improvement in October, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, which saw its Business Outlook Survey rise to 1.0. However, despite that return to positive territory overall, key index components continued to reveal economic softness.
August's 1.3% drop in durable goods orders looks bad. But the real story is that the more-telling component that excludes volatile transportation orders rose 2%, doubling a Bloomberg survey's consensus estimate. So far, Wall Street is reacting ecstatically.
