By James Langton

(April 27 – 09:00 ET) – The U.S. downturn may not be as sharp as some have contended. The first quarter U.S. GDP report was released this morning. It’s up 2.0%, after falling 1.0% in the fourth quarter of 2000. Higher consumer spending overwhelmed falling business investment and declining inventories in the quarter. The dollar is up on the news.

Both Dow Jones and NASDAQ futures are up sharply on the news. And the talk on tech shares has been postive, too, with Cisco Systems Inc. and JDS Uniphase Corp. attracting buyers in the pre-market.

In Europe, stocks are mixed today. Bayer AG and Deutsche Lufthansa AG both fell short of forecasts in profit announcements, today, sending airlines and chemical stocks lower. Unilever is up, after beating expectations and announcing that it will shed 8,000 jobs and more than 30 factories. The FTSE in London is down three points to 5866. The Paris CAC 40 is up 11 ticks to 5493. The German DAX is off 22 points to 6102.

Overnight in Asia, stocks were mixed. The Nikkei was down 39 points overnight to 13934. The Hang Seng, however, added 93 points to 13386.

In earnings news, for the first quarter, Vitran reported a net loss of $1.3 million, or 13¢ per share, compared to net income of 16¢ in the year-ago first quarter. Boliden Limited today reported that for the first quarter of 2001 it recorded an operating loss of $8.9 million, compared with an operating loss of $6.4 million for the first quarter of 2000.