Consumer Confidence Surveys – As Of December 31, 2013

Doug Short had a blog post of December 31 (“Consumer Confidence:  A December Bounce“) 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 the above charts that I …

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St. Louis Financial Stress Index – December 26, 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 December 26, incorporating data from December 31,1993 to December 20, …

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Durable Goods New Orders – Long-Term Charts Through November 2013

Many people place emphasis on Durable Goods New Orders as a prominent economic indicator and/or leading economic indicator. For reference, below are charts depicting this measure. First, from the St. Louis Fed site (FRED), a chart through November, last updated on December 24.  This value is 241,648 ($ Millions) : (click on charts to enlarge …

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Updates Of Economic Indicators December 2013

Here is an update of various indicators that are supposed to predict and/or depict economic activity.  These indicators have been discussed in previous blog posts: The December 2013 Chicago Fed National Activity Index (CFNAI)(pdf) updated as of December 23, 2013: – The ECRI WLI (Weekly Leading Index): As of 12/20/13 (incorporating data through 12/13/13) the WLI was …

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Ben Bernanke’s December 18, 2013 Press Conference – Notable Aspects

On Wednesday, December 18, 2013 Ben Bernanke gave his scheduled press conference. Below are Ben Bernanke’s comments I found most notable – although I don’t necessarily agree with them – in the order they appear in the transcript.  These comments are excerpted from the “Transcript of Chairman Bernanke’s Press Conference“(preliminary)(pdf) of December 18, 2013, with …

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Current Economic Situation

With regard to our current economic situation,  my thoughts can best be described/summarized by the posts found under the 31 “Building Financial Danger” posts. My thoughts concerning our ongoing economic situation – with future implications – can be seen on the page titled “A Special Note On Our Economic Situation,” which has been found near …

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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 of …

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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” (pdf) of December 20, 2013, and represent an aggregation of individual S&P500 component “bottom up” analyst forecasts: Year 2013 estimate: $109.70/share …

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