Bull Trip!: GDP Report Q1 2013 (First Estimate)

Today, the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) released their first "estimate" of the Q1 2013 GDP report showing that the economy grew in the quarter with real GDP improving at an annualized rate of 2.5% from Q4 2012.

On a year-over-year basis, real GDP increased 1.80% while the quarter-to-quarter non-annualized percent change was an increase of 0.62%.

The latest quarterly results indicate that the most notable source of weakness in the economy came from declines in government spending particularly on national defense with a 11.5% decline in federal national defense spending from Q4.

Residential investment, on the other hand, worked to buoy the overall fixed investment component growing at an annualized rate of 12.6% from Q3.

Keep in mind that these results are likely very poorly estimated and are sure to be revised notably in following quarters and even years to come.