The U.S. economy will expand 1.6 percent this year after growing 3 percent in 2010, according to the average of 66 economist forecasts. Consumer spending slowed in August to 0.2 percent as incomes dropped for the first time since October 2009, and the Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index showed the worst quarterly performance in more than two years. Low-Grade Recession Global equities have lost about $6 trillion in value since Aug. 5, when S&P stripped the U.S. of its top AAA credit rating. The S&P 500 tumbled 14 percent in the three months ended in September, the Stoxx Europe 600 Index fell 17 percent, while the MSCI Asia Pacific Index plunged 16 percent, their biggest quarterly drops since the peak of the financial crisis in 2008. Alcoa Inc., the biggest U.S. aluminum producer, will report earnings Oct. 11 after U.S. markets close, the first member of the Dow Jones Industrial Average to do so for the third quarter.