Economy dangerously close to contraction

From MarketWatch.com: 

U.S. economic growth has again slowed sharply, skidding dangerously close in the second quarter to an outright contraction in gross domestic product.

Following the releases Monday of tepid reports on retail sales and inventory accumulation, forecasters marked down their GDP expectations from 1.4% to 1.1%. It’s probable that U.S. GDP rose less than 2% for the third quarter in a row, and it’s possible that growth was less than 1% for the second quarter in the last three....

But we thought that the household sector was holding up a little better. The surprise Monday was that U.S. consumers were more cautious as well. Retail sales rose 0.4% in June, with most of the growth coming from automobile sales. Most retailers reported weak sales for the month....
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Link: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/economy-skids-dangerously-close-to-contraction-2013-07-15