The United Kingdom (NYSE:EWU) might not be the United States’ largest trade partner, but Americans always seem to be affected by what happens there. The Dow (NYSEARCA:DIA) and S&P (NYSEARCA:SPY) were down early Wednesday amid worries about the debt crisis in Europe and a disappointing quarterly report from Britain, but later rallied after the FOMC statement promised no interest rate changes until 2014.

One source of the mischief was the Wednesday release of the U.K.’s fourth quarter 2011 economic statement, which recorded a 0.2% drop in GDP during that period, following a 0.6% rise in the third quarter. The numbers, given by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), are preliminary, and could be revised upwards or down by 0.2%. Still, Chancellor George Osborne called them ‘disappointing but not a surprise’, citing current world affairs and the eurozone crisis as principal causes.

Perhaps more predictably, major political parties blamed each other: P.M. David Cameron and Chancellor Osborne placed the cause with ‘the mess left by Labour’ over the last 10 years, and Ed Balls, the Labour shadow chancellor, cited the Conservative Party’s public spending cuts, which he said were stalling out domestic demand. Balls also remarked that, “… the government has left us badly exposed if the eurozone crisis deepens this year.”.

The last quarterly fall in GDP had occurred in the same period in 2010, for which unnaturally freezing weather was blamed, but this latest drop was considered worse because it was more economy based, and also 0.1% more than expected by consensus. The 2011 fall is being attributed to …

Get Your FREE Special Report: 4 Things You Must Know About the US Economy Now!