Frigid Winter Spells Trouble for U.S. Economy

Investors who want to divine the outlook for U.S. economic growth should look at the weather. David Woo’s rule: the colder, the slower.

Financial markets tend to overreact to abnormally warm or cold conditions, said Woo, head of global rates and currencies at Bank of America Corp., in a Feb 4. report. He found a 48 percent correlation between first-quarter economic growth and temperature over the past decade.