‘Vibecession Starting to Break’: U.S. Economy Grew More Than Expected As Stock Market Surges Toward Another Record High

NBC’s Christine Romans joined MSNBC on Thursday to discuss the latest news on the U.S. economy after second quarter GDP was revised up and the stock market rallied toward another record high.

“U.S. GDP grew at an annual rate of 3% for the second quarter of this year. That beats the previous estimate of 2.8%, and it’s up from the 1.4% increase in the first quarter. Joining us now is NBC’s Christine Romans. Christine, what do these numbers tell us this morning?” began anchor Jose Diaz-Balart.

“It tells us that the economy was actually strengthening in, you know, April, May and June, stronger and more resilient than anyone really expected,” Romans began, adding:

The consumer driving a lot of this, the consumer irritated by high prices but still spending, maybe changing how they’re spending, what they’re spending on but still driving the economy. And also inside these numbers shows a really important here, you know, private business investment very strong showing optimism about the overall economy, optimism about corporate profits.

It’s it’s kind of an interesting moment when you’re 9 or 10 weeks ahead of the election, when so many people say they don’t feel great about the economy. When you see it still moving along here strongly, one economist telling me today, this is a U.S. economy firing on all cylinders, and we’re heading into a new phase where the Federal Reserve is expected to start cutting interest rates gradually starting in September.

That’ll be a little bit of relief for American families on many of their bills of borrowed money. So an interesting new moment here with the U.S. economy is still quite resilient. The fed heading into a new phase here overall. And one wonders if consumer sentiment starts to improve as we head into the fall. We had a consumer confidence number this week that showed confidence at a six-month high and expectations about inflation falling.

“So maybe finally, that so-called ‘vibecession’ is starting to break here. But, certainly the underlying economy, even as it’s front and center in so many voters minds heading into the election, and you’re going to be hearing a lot about it on the campaign trail. You’ve got stocks near record highs and the U.S. economy that is beating expectations, essentially,” she concluded.

BREAKING: U.S. economic growth revised up to 3%. @ChristineRomans breaks down the numbers. pic.twitter.com/Yd2KpxCaqP

— MSNBC (@MSNBC) August 29, 2024

Watch the clip above via MSNBC.

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