The Domestic Product Is Indeed Gross

First quarter GDP numbers will be out today. The target number is a 4.7% rate of contraction, anything smaller then that will make big three digit green numbers on the Dow all day.

We'll see at 8:30 AM EDT.

[UPDATE] And man is it gross. 6.1% drop, well over estimates.

Gross domestic product, which measures total goods and services output within U.S. borders, dropped at a 6.1 percent annual rate, the Commerce Department said, after shrinking 6.3 percent in the fourth quarter.

Analysts polled by Reuters had forecast GDP falling at a 4.9 percent rate in the January-March quarter. Output has declined for three straight quarters for the first time since 1974-1975.

The advance report from the Commerce Department showed business inventories plummeted by a record $103.7 billion in the first quarter, as firms worked to reduce stocks of unsold goods in their warehouses. That sliced 2.79 percentage points from the overall GDP figure. Excluding inventories, GDP contracted 3.4 percent.

Q1 2009 was just as bad as Q4 2008, and there's a chance it may be revised later to where it may actually end up being worse.

Still no light at the end of the tunnel, folks.