NY Fed's GDP Nowcast for Q2 2020 improves to -19%

The US economy is expected to contract by 19% and 1.9% in the second and third quarters of the year, respectively, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York's latest Nowcasting Report showed on Friday. 

"News from this week’s data releases increased the nowcast for 2020:Q2 by 6.9 percentage points and increased the nowcast for 2020:Q3 by 10.6 percentage points," the NY Fed's weekly publication read. "Positive surprises from retail sales, industrial production, capacity utilization, and housing data drove most of the increase."

Market reaction

This report failed to provide a boost to market sentiment. As of writing, both the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 were up around 0.5% on the day while the Nasdaq Composite was gaining 0.7%.