Small-cap stocks edged slightly higher this morning, bouncing off an overnight dip when this morning’s GDP report came in above expectations, and allowed investors skittish about a potential glut of recession headlines to breathe a sigh of relief. At 9:59 a.m. ET, the Russell 2000 (NYSE:IWM) was up 2.74, or 0.38%, at 721.66.

The Chicago Purchasing Manager’s Survey, out at 9:45 a.m. ET, was slightly above expectations at 48.3 and appeared to have very little impact on equity market trading.

After a recent lull in economic data, the numbers charge kicked into gear this morning, with GDP, ECI, Chicago Purchasing, and even ADP’s employment survey coming out. Although GDP was an important number, it’s just a warm-up for the FOMC announcement this afternoon. And just to prove the old axiom of “no rest for the weary,” the market will have to navigate through ISM Manufacturing numbers, Personal Income data and vehicle sales Thursday, then the big employment release Friday morning.

Let’s begin with the aforementioned GDP release. When it came out slightly better than forecast (up 0.6%), it missed the “official” recession gauge by being in positive territory (if you’re curious, the true official recession definition requires two consecutive negative-growth quarters). It’s worth noting that although GDP averted negative growth territory, we’ve still seen two quarters of extremely sluggish growth and the U.S. economy is clearly struggling as consumers deal with . . .

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