The U.S. economy will close out 2016 on a “less horrible” note.

That’s according to Hedgeye CEO Keith McCullough who reviewed recent economic data on The Macro Show earlier today that points to a positive fourth quarter for U.S. GDP:

  • Durable Goods = Better: the headline number was up a big time (+4.8% sequentially) and up +2.1% year-over-year
  • Retail Sales = Better: the retail sales “control group” (a good proxy for what goes into GDP) came in at +4.2% quarter-over-quarter growth rate last week.

“There’s a lot of good ideas out there on a day like this and I’d be remiss not to mention them,” McCullough said. In particular, he likes defense stocks like Textron (TXT) and Lockheed Martin (LMT).

Click here and here for a deeper dive into the data and what it means your portfolio.