U.S. economic data continues to trump analysts’ expectations, with GDP and consumer confidence numbers reinforcing that trend today.

Everyone expected U.S. GDP growth to be revised upwards today, but no one expected the huge jump to 8.2% from the already-huge 7.2% reading. That’s the largest quarterly increase in over 19 years.

RBC Financial says that a better handle on inventory investment was the main cause. Inventories are now thought to have contracted by only about US$14 billion in the third quarter compared to the initial estimate of US$36 billion.

In a separate release, it was reported that U.S. chain store sales bounced back last week, posting a 0.4% rise over the previous week which had seen a 0.8% drop.

“On a year-over-year basis, chain store sales are up by 5.6%. For November, sales appear to have grown by about 4% over the previous month, faster than October’s 3.2% gain. Indeed, sales increased in three of the past four weeks pointing to improving conditions for consumer spending stateside,” RBC says.

Also this morning, the U.S. Conference Board’s consumer confidence index jumped 10 points to 91.7 in November. The present situation, expectations and employment components jumped significantly this month, too.

The only disappointment came from existing home sales for October, which dipped to 6.35 million units, 5% lower than in September and below consensus expectations.

“The bond market snoozed through this report, along with still-strong existing home sales figures,” comments BMO Nesbitt Burns. “But they look important to us! Forecasts for U.S. employment are likely to be marked up following this survey result.”