Futures pare losses as third-quarter GDP growth slows less than expected

(Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures pared some losses on Friday after economic data showed that the U.S. economy grew at a lower pace than expected.

Compared to the third quarter of 2017, the economy grew 3.0 percent, the best performance since the second quarter of 2015, while economists polled by Reuters had forecast GDP expanding at a 3.3 percent pace in the third quarter.

At 8:34 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were down 181 points, or 0.73 percent. S&P 500 e-minis were down 25.75 points, or 0.96 percent and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were down 130.75 points, or 1.89 percent.

A minute before the data came out, Dow e-minis were down 0.87 percent, S&P 500 e-minis were down 1.12 percent and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were down 2.04 percent.

 

(Reporting by Amy Caren Daniel in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta)