Literally seconds ago we noted how Bank of America will sell its first born to crash the market and get $600-800 billion in QE3 up and running by March. Sure enough, here is yet another desperate attempt to push this agenda, this time with the bank cutting tracking Q4 GDP estimates for the second time in two days, to 2.7%, from 3.5% earlier.
From Bank of America
Well, we bumped up our Q4 GDP estimate to 3.5% recently, and to our chagrin the data now starts to disappoint. First, it was retail sales. Today, it is the worsening balance of trade. November's trade gap widened to -$47.8bn in November from -$43.3bn in October against our expectations of a widening to -$44.5bn. The real goods balance fell to -$47.5bn from -$44.0bn. Bottom-line: A wider trade gap implies weaker GDP; our Q4 tracking estimate is running 2.7% from 3.0% post retail sales. The broader story is that growth net of inventory accumulation - domestic demand - is softening as we head into 2012.