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At first blush, the US GDP data for the last three months of 2009 was exceptionally good, “blow the doors off” good. In reality, this first estimate — which, as in the UK, will be revised twice — was rather less dramatic. Getting on for three fifths of growth in the quarter was due to a sharp slowdown in the rate at which MBT Shoe businesses stopped running down stocks and began rebuilding their inventory levels.

Unfortunately, a recovery in inventories usually provides only a temporary lift to economic activity, akin to what has been dubbed, by Mervyn King among others, as the “Honda effect” — the one-off boost resulting from a mothballed factory resuming production. Strip out inventory rebuilding and the US economy grew during the quarter at an annualised rate of only 2.2 per cent, better than the third quarter of 2009 but not really enough to stimulate much job creation and reduce US unemployment from the current rate of 10 per cent.

A more optimistic assessment has it that once inventory levels begin being rebuilt, warehouses start restocking and factories crank up production, eventually leading to higher consumer spending. And here there is genuine cause for optimism. Business investment grew for the first time since the second quarter of 2008. Spending on equipment and software, a sure sign of future economic activity, rose by more than 13 per cent,ghd hair straighteners.

More to the point, with imports growing at a slower rate than expected, nearly all the investment will have been in American goods. That has to be encouraging, as does the point that this looks to be a private sector recovery, since spending by the US Government actually fell during the quarter. How different from the UK, where, without spending by the NHS, even the pitiful 0.1 per cent growth figure reported on Tuesday might not have been possible.

Other positive aspects to yesterday’s figures include the fact that US export growth is outpacing imports, pointing to an improvement in the US trade deficit, while household savings also continue to improve.

Elsewhere yesterday, there was a strong Mbt number on the Chicago purchasing managers index (PMI), another forward-looking indicator. It rose for a fifth successive month.

With all this going on, a more positive response might have been expected from the markets, but the reaction was rather muted. Why? Quite simply, confidence is draining away again from investors, many of whom have lost their appetite for risk. Signs that China’s Government is so worried about inflation that it has told banks to ease back on new lending have certainly contributed to this. So, too, has some of the recent left-leaning rhetoric emerging from President Obama and some US senators. A third factor is the Greek debt crisis, even though, with Greece accounting for only 2 per cent of eurozone GDP, not everyone is convinced of this.

It all points to an uneasy first half of 2010 for ghd hair straighteners  markets. Genuine evidence of firms committing to new capital projects and to hiring new staff will be the antidote.