WEEKLY MARKET OUTLOOK - First-Quarter GDP Comes in Soft

This relationship was spreads show market participants remain confident in the disrupted in recent years, but the decline in the VIX last year creditworthiness of borrowers and see the overall economy by 42.5% to the average of 17 has brought it back generally as favorable. [...] traders weighed the possibility of less Federal Reserve rate cuts and For the first quarter, the default tally reached 34, down from the prospect of a direct conflict between Iran and Israel, the 38 in the comparable period of last year. [...] The unemployment rate fell in quarter, and the contributions from consumer spending, March, back down to 3.8%, and the jobless rate has been trade and government will diminish in the first half of 2024. [...] The gains reflect the building of new outlook for housing starts improved in the short term as semiconductor plants, driven by the incentives in the CHIPS frustrated homebuyers increasingly turn to new construction and Science Act and the building of EV plants helped along to satisfy their demand. [...] Removing the effects of the 3 million jobs since the start of 2023, but the jobless rate budget gimmicks and factoring in an additional $100 billion only ticked up from 3.4% to 3.8% during the same period, in emergency supplementals—such as for international aid as more workers have joined the workforce.