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Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
Topsy-turvy US economic data released this week left markets in a pickle, but still just outside the danger zone.
Official figures revealed on Thursday that the US economy was not necessarily streaking ahead of the rest of the developed world as thought. It turns out that growth was running at an annualised pace of 1.6 per cent in the first quarter — far behind the 3.4 per cent clip in the fourth quarter of last year and a big miss from the 2.5 per cent that economists had been expecting.
For a tiny moment, benchmark government bonds popped higher in price in response — a typical reaction to a nasty shock on growth.
But other data blurred the picture, in particular on inflation. On Friday, the Federal Reserve’s go-to measure of price fluctuations — personal consumption expenditures figures — showed
