A robust pace of business spending likely buoyed U.S. While that would be a step down from the second quarter’s brisk 4.6 percent pace, it would the fourth quarter out of five that the economy has expanded at or above a 3 percent clip. “It was a very good quarter for business investment,” said Ryan Sweet, a senior economist at Moody’s Analytics in West Chester Pennsylvania. While data on Tuesday suggested some moderation in the pace of equipment investment in the fourth quarter, it is still expected to remain strong enough to keep the economy on a higher growth pace.