The economy looks weak in the first quarter, but better days are coming

With expectations increasing that first-quarter growth will be nowhere close to some projections, there's good news: The rest of the year still looks fine. That point was driven home Friday when Bank of America Merrill Lynch became the latest Wall Street forecaster to knock down its growth estimates for the first three months of 2018. The firm's economists now see GDP rising at just a 1.7 percent pace, compared to the 2.3 percent as of its most recent estimate.