US gross domestic product data released today significantly outperformed and surpassed the best marks from last year. New orders for durable goods and initial jobless claims, meanwhile, hit forecasts almost on the nose.

GDP exceeds recovery from 2021

After the GDP in the United States had most recently been 2.3%, a significant recovery was already expected in the forecasts for the 4th quarter of 2021 at 5.5%. However, the figure of 6.9 % published today far eclipses expectations.  The price index GDP also came in at 7.0 %, beating the expected 6.0 % by 1 percentage point. The strong reading is likely to encourage the Fed in its drive to tighten monetary policy and take the first step towards raising interest rates soon.

Jobless claims and durable goods meet expectations

The figures on jobless claims, which were also published today, largely met expectations. Initial claims were exactly at the expected 260,000 and subsequent claims were slightly above the expected 1,650,000 at 1,675,000. Overall, the labour market in the United States continues to be quite stable.

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New orders for durable goods also exactly met expectations at 0.4 %, after this indicator had still been at 1.1 % in the previous month. Overall, the US economy is accordingly still on the road to recovery and the Dow Jones continued its moderate recovery course after the publication of the above data. The US dollar also seems to have benefited from the data and the EUR/USD pair initially fell to its lowest level since June 2020 after the publication.

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