The BEA on Thursday provided the Fed with more evidence to justify this month’s dovish policy pivot. Imagine that.

In an extremely fortuitous, not to mention unexpected, turn, core PCE in the third and final estimate of Q3 GDP was revised lower to just 2%, down from 2.3% in the second estimate.

That’s quite helpful for the FOMC. Some critics, including the likes of Bill Dudley, worry the Committee runs the risk of allowing inflation to re-accelerate in 2024 with premature rate cuts.

“We came into the session expecting GDP revisions to be a nonevent, but the [downward core PCE revision] was an impressive print that’s consistent with the Fed’s target and reinforces Powell’s pivot, if nothing else,” BMO’s Ian Lyngen remarked.

I wouldn’t want to make too big a deal of this (hence I’m not running it as a feature article), but it’s absolutely notable. Consensus expected no change from the second estimate.

Of course, this is old news by definition (it’s last quarter’s GDP release), but between the sharp downward revision to the core price index, a downward revision to the headline growth print (which, amusingly, is now back to where it started, at 4.9%, after two revisions) and yet another very low weekly read on initial claims (which printed 205,000), it was “soft landing”/”Goldilocks” all the way.