Addison Wiggan and Ian Mathias in Agora Financial’s 5. Min Forecast have already warned readers about the risk of taking yesterday’s 3.3% rise in U.S GDP figures at face value. Here, Charles Delvalle at Investor’s Daily Edge says the government’s economic stimulus checks and a weak dollar made U.S. growth seem more impressive than it really is. Don’t expect 3Q data to be quite so favorable…

Mainstream pundits would like you to believe that the worst of the credit crisis is over. But if it were over why would the FDIC, the US government insurance agency for bank deposits, be expanding it’s operations?

U.S. stocks were given a boost today by a strong upward revision of GDP growth data for Q2. According to updated figures, between April and June, the economy expanded by 3.3% y-o-y, up from a preliminary estimate of 1.9%. The Dow (DJI), S&P500 (INX) and Nasdaq (IXIC) all responded with gains of over 1% during the day’s trading.

U.S. consumer confidence is on the mend, we are told. The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index rose to 56.9 for August from a revised 51.9 in July. This was a higher jump than forecast. The only problem is on the same day that the Conference Board came out with its jaunty view of the collective mind of American shoppers, ABC News spoiled the party by telling us that consumer confidence was at a record low for the week.

The next move from the U.S. Federal Reserve will be to increase the Federal Funds rate, although the timing of that hike remains to be decided.“A number of participants worried about the possibility that core inflation might fail to moderate next year unless the stance of monetary policy was tightened sooner than currently anticipated by financial markets,” according to the minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee’s Aug. 5 meeting released yesterday (Tuesday).