The U.S. economy shrank for the first time in three years in the first quarter during an unusually harsh winter, the Commerce Department said Thursday. Gross domestic product contracted by 1.0 percent annual rate in the first three months of 2014, a downward revision from the government's previous estimate of a 0.1 percent growth rate. The economy is expected to accelerate in the spring quarter, based on improvements in the job market, housing and manufacturing, economists say.
