Growth slowed but remained resilient at the end of 2024, leaving the U.S. economy on solid footing heading into a new year — and a new presidential administration — that is full of uncertainty.

U.S. gross domestic product, adjusted for inflation, grew at a 2.3% annual rate in the fourth quarter of last year, the Commerce Department reported Thursday. That was down from 3.1% in the third quarter but nonetheless represented an encouraging end to a year in which the economy again defied expectations.

Robust consumer spending, underpinned by low unemployment and steady wage growth, helped keep the economy on track despite high interest rates, stubborn inflation and political turmoil at home and abroad. For the year as a whole, measured from the end of 2023 to the end of 2024, GDP increased 2.5%, far ahead of forecasters’ expectations when the year began.

The figures are preliminary and will be revised at least twice as more data becomes available.

But the economy entered the new year facing a new set of challenges. The whirlwind start to President Donald Trump’s second term — including sweeping changes to immigration policy, a spending freeze that was announced and then rescinded, and steep tariffs that could take effect as early as this weekend — has increased uncertainty for households and businesses. Economists warn that his proposals on trade and immigration, in particular, could lead to faster inflation, slower growth or both.

“You really have all the right ingredients to support sustainable growth, but the question is, where will it be in 12 months’ time?” said Gregory Daco, chief economist for the consulting firm EY-Parthenon. “The risk is you break the economy.”

Still, the economy entered 2025 with significant momentum, led by consumer spending, which grew at a 4.2% annual rate in the fourth quarter, ahead of forecasters’ expectations. The housing market, too, showed signs of life at the end of the year, as a drop in mortgage rates spurred construction activity.

But there are also pockets of weakness. Businesses invested less in new buildings and equipment in the fourth quarter, and exports fell. At the same time, consumer prices rose more quickly at the end of the year.

— New York Times

Feds move to block HPE-Juniper merger

The Justice Department moved Thursday to block Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s $14 billion acquisition of Juniper Networks, the first deal to be challenged by antitrust enforcers during President Donald Trump’s second term.

In a lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, the government said the deal “risks substantially lessening competition in a critically important technology market.” The agency said the deal would end a corporate rivalry in the wireless networking industry that resulted in lower prices for big companies, universities, hospitals and other buyers of complex technology systems.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise, or HPE, a business software and services company, announced the $14 billion takeover of Juniper last year, with hopes of combining its data centers with Juniper’s networking business to take on giants such as Cisco.

OpenAI said to be looking at SoftBank

OpenAI, the San Francisco artificial intelligence company that has been on a yearslong money-raising frenzy, is in talks with the Japanese conglomerate SoftBank for an investment up to $25 billion, according to three people familiar with the negotiations.

Some of that money could be used to cover OpenAI’s commitment to Stargate, the $100 billion data center project announced at the White House last week, the people said. But the money would be separate from the investment SoftBank is already putting into that project.

The sources, who requested anonymity because the talks were confidential, stressed that the terms of the investment are not yet final.

Stargate, a joint venture of SoftBank, OpenAI and the software company Oracle, could result in $500 billion of investment in computing infrastructure, the companies have said.

— From news services