CEO Confidence Surveys 1Q 2013 – Notable Excerpts

On April 25, The Conference Board released its 1st Quarter CEO Confidence Survey.   The overall measure of CEO Confidence was at 54, up from 46 in the fourth quarter. [note:  a reading of more than 50 points reflects more positive than negative responses] Notable excerpts from this April 25 Press Release include: CEOs’ assessment of current …

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Consumer Confidence Surveys – As Of April 26, 2013

Doug Short had a blog post of April 26 (“Michigan Consumer Sentiment:  Better Than Expected, But Worse Than Last Month“) in which he presents the latest Conference Board Consumer Confidence and Thomson/Reuters University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index charts.  They are presented below: (click on charts to enlarge images) – – There are a few aspects of …

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St. Louis Financial Stress Index – April 25, 2013 Update

On March 28, 2011 I wrote a post (“The STLFSI“) about the  St. Louis Fed’s Financial Stress Index (STLFSI) which is supposed to measure stress in the financial system.  For reference purposes, the most recent chart is seen below.  This chart was last updated on April 25, incorporating data from December 31,1993 to April 19, …

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Trends Of S&P500 Earnings Forecasts

S&P500 earnings trends and estimates are a notably important topic, for a variety of reasons, at this point in time. FactSet publishes a report titled “Earnings Insight” that contains a variety of information including the trends and expectations of S&P500 earnings. For reference purposes, here are two charts as seen in the “Earnings Insight” (pdf) report …

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S&P500 Earnings Estimates For Years 2013, 2014, And 2015

As many are aware, Thomson Reuters publishes earnings estimates for the S&P500.  (My other posts concerning S&P earnings estimates can be found under the S&P500 Earnings tag) The following estimates are from Exhibit 12 of “The Director’s Report” of April 23, 2013, and represent an aggregation of individual S&P500 component “bottom up” analyst forecasts: Year 2013 estimate: $112.38/share …

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Broad-Based Indicators Of Economic Activity

The Chicago Fed National Activity Index (CFNAI) and the Aruoba-Diebold-Scotti Business Conditions Index (ADS Index) are two broad-based economic indicators that I regularly feature in this site. The current levels of each are notable, as they are vacillating from a short-term perspective and their long-term trends continue to sink. Doug Short, in his most recent …

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Updates Of Economic Indicators April 2013

Here is an update on various indicators that are supposed to predict and/or depict economic activity.  These indicators have been discussed in previous blog posts: The April Chicago Fed National Activity Index (CFNAI)(pdf) updated as of April 22, 2013: – The ECRI WLI (Weekly Leading Index): As of 4/19/13 (incorporating data through 4/12/13) the WLI was at …

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