St. Louis Financial Stress Index – March 20, 2014 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 March 20, incorporating data from December 31,1993 to March 14, …

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Chicago Fed National Financial Conditions Index (NFCI)

Each week I have been posting two charts of the St. Louis Fed’s Financial Stress Index (STLFSI), which is supposed to measure stress in the financial system. Of course, there are a variety of other measures and indices that are supposed to measure financial stress and other related issues, both from the Federal Reserve as well as …

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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 March 19, 2014, and represent an aggregation of individual S&P500 component “bottom up” analyst forecasts: Year 2013 estimate: $109.81/share …

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Standard & Poor’s S&P500 Earnings Estimates For 2013, 2014 & 2015 – As Of March 13, 2014

As many are aware, Standard & Poor’s publishes earnings estimates for the S&P500.  (My posts concerning their estimates can be found under the S&P500 Earnings tag) For reference purposes, the most current estimates are reflected below, and are as of March 13, 2014: Year 2013 estimates add to the following: -From a “bottom up” perspective, operating earnings of $107.29/share …

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VIX Weekly And Monthly Charts Since Year 2000

For reference purposes, below are two charts of the VIX from year 2000 through yesterday’s (March 17, 2014) close. Below is the VIX Weekly chart, depicted on a LOG scale, with price labels as well as the 13- and 34-week moving averages, seen in the cyan and red lines, respectively: (click on chart to enlarge …

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Was A Depression Successfully Avoided?

One of the central tenets arising from the Financial Crisis and the various interventions taken during the period was that by enacting the various interventions, an economic depression was avoided. Now, over five years after the Financial Crisis, many global stock markets have been booming, economic growth has been evident in many measures, and the …

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Euro Vs. The U.S. Dollar

One of my ongoing concerns is the (declining) level and future resiliency of the U.S. Dollar. For reference, below is a chart that I find notable.  It provides a comparison of the Euro (on the top plot) to the Dollar  (found on the bottom plot) over the last five years: (chart courtesy of StockCharts.com; chart …

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