GDP Report Is Less Negative Than It Looks

The fourth quarter of 2012 had a lot of obstacles to overcome, but "uncertainty" doesn't appear to have been one of them. Business investment and consumer spending were the bright spots in an otherwise weak report.

The 0.1 percent decline in real gross domestic product, worse that the most pessimistic forecast, was driven by a 22.2 percent decline in defense spending, the biggest in four decades.