From Goldman Sachs (A.Nathan, J.Grimberg) today:
Despite last week’s Q2 GDP release that showed growth contracting for a second consecutive quarter—tripping the rule of thumb that two quarters of negative growth constitute a recession—we don’t think the US is officially in recession. We note that the indicators that the NBER places the greatest weight on for determining monthly and quarterly business cycle peaks have all continued to increase, as gross domestic income rose in the first quarter and nonfarm payrolls have continued to grow at a rapid pace. And while labor market data has historically lagged other economic indicators, we find that it would be historically unusual for the labor market to appear as strong as it is at present even at the very outset of a recession. We see Q2 corporate financial results and management guidance as providing further evidence that the economic expansion continued during the second quarter, and also view the message from credit market fundamentals as reassuring. That said, growth has slowed substantially, and as a result we continue to expect the Fed to slow the pace of tightening from here, delivering a 50bp hike in September and 25bp hikes in November and December.