US Q1 GDP likely to be less bad than originally reported

By week's end, US Q1 GDP (Wednesday) is likely to be less bad than originally reported, while the next day's consumer spending figures will likely register a sizeable gain. 

Upward revisions to retail sales and, to a lesser extent, other categories like other services and trade are feeding expectations that the third swing at GDP estimates will be revised better than the 0.7% contraction that was registered in the second print. 

The first estimate had been 0.2%. Recall that while the US frequently revises growth estimates, it is only in time for this third swing that we get hard data on many types of services spending from the Commerce Department's quarterly services survey and it is difficult to directly translate this report into GDP. Until that report arrives, the first two quarterly GDP estimates largely just guess at what happened to the services sector.