“Business just stopped dead in its tracks.” – Slowdown “worse than expected.”
“The US economy slowed drastically in the first three months of the year as a harsh winter exacted a toll on business activity,” says this article by Martin Crutsinger.
The scant 0.1 percent growth rate in the gross domestic product, the country’s total output of goods and services, was well below the 1.1 percent rise economists had predicted.
Spending on goods barely rose, business investment fell, spending on equipment plunged, the trade deficit rose, and residential construction fell at a 5.7 percent rate.
Consumer spending mainly reflected higher utility bills
In its report Wednesday, the government said consumer spending grew, “but that gain was dominated by a 4.4 percent rise in spending on services, reflecting higher utility bills.”
http://www.breitbart.com/system/wire/ap_539fd37ff23f4f9383512e31c8dd8f16#
Thanks to Bill Sellers for these links