Investment Bolsters Economy

Economy

Soaring business investment helped the economy expand relatively energetically during a lull in retail shopping this spring. A consumer revival should keep it from fading too much for the rest of the year, analysts say.

The gross domestic product - the broadest measure of economic growth - advanced at a 3.3 percent seasonally adjusted annual rate in the April-June quarter, the Commerce Department said Friday.

That was little changed from the department’s estimate of a month ago, 3.6 percent, when it registered a somewhat stronger export increase. And healthy growth was accompanied by very little inflation.

As a result, Stocks and bonds traded less skittishly than of late. The Dow Jones average of 30 industrial stocks gained 74.17 points to close at 7,922.18. Bond prices rose too, sending the yield on the benchmark 30-year Treasury bond to 6.37 percent from 6.40 percent.

“Times are good and should continue to be so,” said economist Jerry Jasinowski, president of the National Association of Manufacturers.