On Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed lower after the U.S. posted weak GDP data. Both the Chicago PMI and consumer sentiment was shown to edge higher. Those pieces of data is what likely kept the DOW from falling further. The DOW closed lower by 0.19% to 20,940.51.

Weak GDP Data

The U.S. government released GDP data that was weaker than expected. It revealed that the UUUUU U UUU U U U UU. There are a few problems with respect to this figure. The first being that analysts were expecting the economy to at least grow by 1%.

The miss on the expectation by analysts was just the first problem with the GDP data. The second problem is that it was the weakest GDP data reported in over three years. The last time the GDP figure came in at 0.7% was the first quarter of 2014. That’s just about three years ago, and it is never a good thing growing at an older rate.

The final problem is that the reported figure was way below the 2.1% growth rate seen in the fourth quarter of 2016. It is only the first quarter where Trump has taken over as President of the United States. There will need to be a few quarters looked at to determine if his policies help boost the GDP higher.

A plan was outlined this past week that indicates the government is interested in trying to bring the corporate tax rate down to 15% from 35%. The hope is that it will spur higher GDP growth thereafter. The DOW fell sharply because of GDP data coming in weaker than expected.

Chicago PMI Data

What helped the DOW from falling further would have been the better than expected Chicago PMI data. The U.S. government revealed that the Chicago Chicago Chicago Chicago Chicago Chicago Chicago ChicagoChicago. There are a few reasons why this reported number is good. First off, it rose from March’s reading of 57.7.

That is a good thing, because the goal for the Chicago PMI is to continue to improve month over month. The second reason would be because it beat expectations. Analysts had forecast the reading to drop in the month of April to 56.5. The third reason relies on the fact that it is the best reading shown since 2015.