Later today, the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis will release its first read on U.S. first quarter GDP. Some analysts have recently lowered earlier estimates, with the consensus now forecasting that GDP on an annualized basis will be reported at 2.5%, down from 3.0% in the previous period. The slight downgrade in the reading is based primarily on recent economic data that was weaker than anticipated, first and foremost among them the surprisingly poor outcome in March NFP data and more recently an uptick in new unemployment claims. Read more