Consumer Confidence Surveys – As Of June 27, 2014

Doug Short had a blog post of June 27, 2014 (“Final June 2014 Michigan Consumer Sentiment Shows a Small Improvement“) 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 …

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VIX Weekly And Monthly Charts Since The Year 2000

For reference purposes, below are two charts of the VIX from year 2000 through yesterday’s (June 25, 2014) close, which had a closing value of 11.59: Below is the VIX Weekly chart, depicted on a LOG scale, with the 13- and 34-week moving averages, seen in the cyan and red lines, respectively: (click on chart …

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Chicago Fed National Financial Conditions Index (NFCI)

The St. Louis Fed’s Financial Stress Index (STLFSI) is one index that is supposed to measure stress in the financial system.  Its reading as of the June 19, 2014 update is -1.303. 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 …

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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 2014 Through 2017

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 June 24, 2014, and represent an aggregation of individual S&P500 component “bottom up” analyst forecasts: Year 2014 estimate: $119.69/share …

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Standard & Poor’s S&P500 Earnings Estimates For 2014 & 2015 – As Of June 19, 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 June 19, 2014: Year 2014 estimates add to the following: -From a “bottom up” perspective, operating earnings of $119.61/share …

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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 37 “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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The Bond Bubble – June 2014 Update

In previous posts I have discussed the Bond Bubble and its many facets, as my analyses indicates that the overall bond market is an exceedingly large asset bubble with immensely large and wide-ranging economic implications. Since my last post on the Bond Bubble (the February 6, 2013 post titled “The Bond Bubble – February 2013 Update“) I have …

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