Here comes GDP ...

Evan Vucci/AP

The Commerce Department is set to release its first reading on how the US economy performed in the third quarter at 8:30 a.m. ET.

Economists forecast that gross domestic product, the value of every good and service produced within the country, increased at an annualized rate of 3.3%, according to estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

A healthy jobs market with the lowest unemployment rate in 49 years, coupled with strong consumer confidence, likely supported consumer spending, the biggest driver of the US economy.

While consumer spending continues to be robust, business investment appears to have stalled in the July-September period according to economists at Morgan Stanley. They estimate a 0.1 percentage-point boost to GDP from corporate America, down from 1.2 percentage points in the second quarter.

Another likely area of weakness is housing; much of the data on residential investment during the third quarter was weaker than expected. Existing-home sales peaked in November and fell every month in Q3 amid affordability constraints and tight inventory. But because housing contributes little to overall GDP, it should only have a modest drag on growth, the economists said.

A component that could be a significant drag, however, is net exports. Companies outside the US stockpiled on goods ahead of the implementation of tariffs, providing a more than one-percentage-point boost to GDP in Q2. But this effect faded in Q3; in August, for example, the US goods deficit with China jumped to an all-time one-month record of $38.6 billion without seasonal adjustments.

"Inventories should see the opposite effect, where we expect a significant 2.4 percentage-point contribution after the 1.2pp drag from this volatile category in 2Q," Morgan Stanley's economists said in a preview.

More to come, refresh this page for the latest at 8:30 a.m. ET.

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