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very good thursday morning to you . i m jim sciutto. i m poppy harlow. this just in to cnn, important news for the u.s. economy, the nation s gross domestic product, how much the economy grew or shrank, declined less than previously thought in the second quarter of this year. revised up from negative .9% to negative .6%. it may not sound like much. it shows our economy is shrinking. cnn chief business correspondent christine romans joins us now with more. we often have seen revisions like this, with jobs figures, sometimes in both directions, sometimes in a positive direction, what is the significance of the revision here? it means the economy is less lousy in the second quarter than we thought, and in fact consumer spending and corporate profits were stronger and that is an underpinning here of the u.s. economy. you look at quarter by quarter by quarter, you see two quarters in a row of a shrinking u.s. economy. but shrinking much less in the second quarter than ....
Quarter, and, you know, some of these other more recent this is rear view mirror looking, this is the second quarter, we re into the third quarter, and some of the early data for the third quarter, monthly reports, are showing a pretty strong picture for the consumer, so the third quarter is likely going to be positive. of course, as you know, when you have two negative quarters, that begins the discussion about whether or not you re in a recession, and, guys, it is just not an easy call. there are so many conflicting figures out there. you look at jobless claims, for example, which also just came out in the last half hour, jobless claims fell, meaning fewer layoffs this week than the week before. and in fact a layoff picture that is still historically pretty low here, these were the lowest layoffs in three weeks, and frankly, you know, much, much stronger job market right now than you would have normally in a recession. so, the recession guessing game continues. we have two months ....