The US GDP grew an annualized 5.2% in the third quarter, the strongest growth since the fourth quarter of 2021. There are intriguing highlights from today's GDP release, which might explain why this was seen as good news looking ahead, instead of an inflation flash point. Could the Fed actually be engineering a soft landing?

Consumer spending, despite coming in under the 4% estimate, had the largest gain since Q4 2021, and residential investment rose for the first time in two years. 

Stocks were higher but have given up some of the gains after Thomas Barkin, Fed Bank of Richmond President indicated that talking about rates cuts is premature and that the Feb shouldn’t take an additional rate hike off the table.  Still, all the major indices are in the green.

Real Estate and Financials are outperforming today while Communication Services is the laggard.

Breadth is positive with advancers far outpacing decliners and new 52-week highs exceed new lows on both the NYSE and Nasdaq.

Let’s see if the market can hang on to its gains heading into the close, and if it can build on the stellar November gains.