The U.S. economy contracted in the first three months of 2025, fueling recession fears at the start of President Donald Trump's second term in office as he wages a potentially costly trade war. Gross domestic product, a sum of all the goods and services produced from January through March, fell at a 0.3% annualized pace, according to a Commerce Department report Wednesday adjusted for seasonal factors and inflation. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had been looking for a gain of 0.4% after GDP rose by 2.4% in the fourth quarter of 2024.