Welcome to Seeking Alpha's Wall Street Lunch. Our afternoon update on today's market action news and analysis.

Good afternoon. Today is Thursday, Julyth and I'm your host Kim Khan. Our top story in today's session.

GDP blew away forecasts for slowing growth in the second quarter. It rose in an annual rate of 2.4 percent,

well ahead of forecasts for 1.5 percent and up from 2 percent in Q1. Growth was

driven by consumer spending, non-residential fixed investment, state and local government

spending, private inventory investment, and federal government spending.

Drags were decreases in exports and residential fixed investment.

Along with that, there are further signs of disinflation.

The PCE price index was up 2.6%, down from 4.1% in Q1.

The core PE price index, excluding food and energy, was up 3.8% versus 4% consensus.

Panthian macro sees softer consumption in Koo 3 and especially Q4 when student loan repayments start again, but for now growth is holding up.

Wells Fargo says the U.S. economy is weathering the fastest hikes in a generation without much damage to the major gearworks of the economy.

I.N.G. says Goldilocks GDP numbers like this fuel the soft landing narrative, but warns that tighter monetary policy,

plus tighter lending conditions, will increasingly restrain economic activity

and growth will slow and possibly contract from the fourth quarter.

GDP was the headliner in a big lineup of strong data that included better than expected

durable goods orders and jobless claims falling unexpectedly.

Taken altogether, Wells Fargo says the path to avoiding recession looks clearer today

that it did even a few weeks ago.

Now look at today's trading, stocks are rallying with growth the clear leader after failing

to react much to the Fed's hike on Wednesday. The NASDAQ is up 1.75%

thanks to a post-earning surge in meta platforms. The S&P is up 0.75% with the Communication Services sector jumping more than 3% with the Meta Assist.

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