Consumer Confidence Surveys – As Of August 29, 2014

Doug Short had a blog post of August 29, 2014 (“August Michigan Consumer Sentiment Bounced Back“) 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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Corporate Profits As A Percentage Of GDP

In the last post (“2nd Quarter 2014 Corporate Profits“) I displayed, for reference purposes, a long-term chart depicting Corporate Profits After Tax. There are many ways to view this measure, both on an absolute as well as relative basis. One relative measure is viewing Corporate Profits as a Percentage of GDP.  I feel that this metric …

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2nd Quarter 2014 Corporate Profits

Today’s GDP release (Q2, 2nd Estimate)(pdf) was accompanied by the BLS Corporate Profits report for the 2nd Quarter. Of course, there are many ways to adjust and depict overall Corporate Profits.  For reference purposes, here is a chart from the St. Louis Federal Reserve (FRED) showing the Corporate Profits After Tax (last updated August 28, 2014, …

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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 August 21, 2014 update (reflecting data through August 15) is -1.266. Of course, there are a variety of other measures and indices that are supposed to measure financial stress and other related …

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Updates Of Economic Indicators August 2014

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 August 2014 Chicago Fed National Activity Index (CFNAI)(pdf) updated as of August 25, 2014: – The ECRI WLI (Weekly Leading Index): As of August 22, 2014 (incorporating data through August …

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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 39 “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 2014-2017

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 August 20, 2014, and represent an aggregation of individual S&P500 component “bottom up” analyst forecasts: Year 2014 estimate: $119.31/share …

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