Little ado about not very much. Markets yawned when the government revised its initial estimate of economic growth in the first quarter from a slight positive, +0.1 percent, to a non-trivial negative of -1.0 percent. There are several reasons that the first shrinkage of the economy in three years did not deter investors from driving share prices to record levels, defying the old injunction to “sell in May and go away.”
First, economic activity in the first quarter of the year was adversely affected by the refusal of the earth to warm: cold and snow kept consumers home, disrupted supply chains and forced workers to miss work. The White House was quick to point out that starting in December of last year key economic indicators dipped in response to the “disruptive effect” of “severe weather.”
