US sees 'modest' growth, businesses show 'near-term' optimism: Fed

The US economy grew at an unspectacular pace in recent weeks, while businesses still took a rosy view of the near future despite the escalating US-China trade war, the Federal Reserve said Wednesday. "Although concerns regarding tariffs and trade policy uncertainty continued, the majority of businesses remained optimistic about the near-term outlook," the central bank said in a nationwide survey of economic activity.

But Fed still drew a spotty portrait, pointing to an array of softening or deteriorating conditions that could be signs of coming slowdown.