Pfizer has cut its sales and profit forecast, external for the year blaming the strong US dollar. Around 60% of the company's sales are outside the US and the strong dollar reduces the value of profits on those sales. However Pfizer's first quarter results were better than expected. Shares are down 0.38%.

Robert Peston
Economics editor

@JunckerEU tells BBC could be minor EU treaty changes to accommodate @David_Cameron but nothing big like restrictions on emigration

Image source, PA

The Scottish National Party has said today's UK GDP figures demonstrate the need for an end to austerity. Scottish Finance Minister John Swinney said: "The lesson I take from that is that we have a chance in the election next Thursday to start to invest again in our economy by ending the austerity and spending cuts of the UK government."

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US consumer confidence fell to the lowest level in four months, according to figures from The Conference Board, external. Its index fell back to 95.2 in April from 101.4 in March. Its figures are based on around 3,000 respondents to a monthly survey. "This month's retreat was prompted by a softening in current conditions, likely sparked by the recent lacklustre performance of the labour market," said Lynn Franco, from The Conference Board.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average has been bouncing around so far. It started higher, reversed direction and then bounced back up. Merck is the biggest winner so far with a 5% gain. Investors clearly liked the firm's first quarter results, external. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq are slightly lower.

Image source, YAHOO

Apple shares surged to a record and then fell back following the firm's strong quarterly results, released after the close of trading on Monday. Apple sold 61.1 million iPhones in the first three months of 2015, driving profit up 33% from a year earlier. Sales in greater China leapt 71% to $16.8bn, outpacing sales in the US for the first time.

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Denver and San Francisco are the hottest property markets in the US according to the latest S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices, external. The data for February showed that prices increased by 10% and 9.8%, respectively, over the past 12 months. The 10-city composite index gained 4.8% year-over-year, up from 4.3% in January.

UPS reported an 11% increase, external in profits on operations to $1.7bn in the first quarter compared with the previous year. It shipped 1.1 billion packages during the quarter. That's up 2.8%. Growth in European export shipments jumped 9.4%. The company said its earnings forecast for the year remains unchanged.

There is "a glaring disparity between the GDP data and other evidence on the state of the economy," according to EY Item Club senior economic advisor Martin Beck. Data on business activity suggests manufacturing and services growth, while ONS numbers showed retail sales growing by 1% on the quarter.

Image source, Reuters

Ford made a pre-tax profit of $1.4bn (£915m) for the first three months of 2015. Although that was a rise of $24m on the same quarter last year, the numbers still fell short of some Wall Street forecasts. The second-largest car maker in the US sold fewer vehicles in North America and the Middle East, but saw improvement in Europe and Asia. Global sales fell 1% to 1.6 million units.

UKIP's spokesman on economic affairs, Patrick O'Flynn, urges caution over today's data on slowing UK growth. "The Tories and Labour are over-blowing a single set of figures," especially as official data is frequently revised, he tells the BBC. Nevertheless, the news is "disappointing" and "makes the case for tax cuts and putting money back into people's pockets," he adds.

Naturally, there's been a lot of focus on the UK economy today, but elsewhere the Greek economic drama continues. After re-shuffling his negotiating team Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras remains optimistic that the country can reach an outline bailout deal with the EU and IMF. "Despite the difficulties, the possibilities to win in the negotiations are large. Whoever gets scared in this game loses," he says.

Image source, Getty Images

If you're wondering why we've illustrated a post on UK GDP with a picture of jazz vocalist Bobby McFerrin, it's because UBS summed up its take on today's growth slowdown as "Don't worry, be happy". The bank says that "despite the disappointment in the headline growth number, we would not be particularly pessimistic. Some of the drags in Q1 [the first quarter], especially construction and industrial production, look likely to reverse in future quarters." The surprise slowdown in the services sector mostly relates to banking, which had a slow start to the year, UBS says.

Accountancy firm PwC says the slowdown in GDP growth is likely to be "a wobble", and possibly not much more. "We need to bear in mind these are only preliminary estimates that may well be revised later," says John Hawksworth, PwC's chief economist. "It would... be premature to conclude that the UK economic recovery is stalling when other fundamentals such as rising employment and low inflation are boosting consumer spending power."

Conservative plans for after the general election "risk completely killing off this faltering recovery and plunging the economy back into even deeper trouble", TUC general secretary Frances O'Grady says. "The slowest recovery in modern history just slowed down again."

UK construction is "at a crossroads" says Michael Conroy Harris of law firm Eversheds. "While the headline figure will be analysed for its impact on the general election, the underlying figure for UK construction is yet another worrying sign that the industry is at a crossroads. On the back of other reports that we don't have enough bricks, let alone bricklayers, it's hard to see how supply has any chance of keeping up with demand in housebuilding."

Robert Peston
Economics editor

If we weren't a nation of shoppers and restaurant eaters, there would be very little growth at all. The output of distribution, hotels and restaurants increased by 1.2% in the quarter - only slightly slower than at the end of last year."

Read Robert's full blog post.

BP shares have gained about 1.82% in value after the oil giant posted results that exceeded analyst expectations.

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Daimler , externalhas reported first quarter net profits of $2.2bn (£1.4bn), nearly double the amount it made during the same period last year. The demand for Mercedes-Benz across its major markets in China and the US also helped the German automaker reach record first quarter sales, which grew by 18% to over 459,000 vehicles.

Image source, Rex Features

French oil giant Total has reported a 20% drop in first-quarter net profit, down to $2.7bn (£1.75bn) from $3.3bn a year earlier. The drop was smaller than analysts had expected.