Friday on CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” network CME Group floor reporter Rick Santelli reacted the unveiling of the first quarter of 2018 gross domestic product number, which came in at 2.3 percent and beat expectations.

“Holy cow, better than expected — up 2.3 percent,” Santelli said. “You know, many were thinking, and there were a lot of reasons to believe so, that it would be under the 2 percent, 2.3 [percent] of course as follows. Two-point-nine [percent] last quarter. A couple of important issues — some of the numbers we had yesterday that get plugged directly into GDP aren’t included in this number, but they were first-quarter numbers. So there was a bias that some of this might come out, but there were other numbers that could get charged and changed, as well.”

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