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 December 13, 2018 update (reflecting data through December 7, 2018) is -.815. Of course, there are a variety of other measures and indices that are supposed to measure financial stress and other …

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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 EPS Forecasts For Years Through 2018-2020

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 24 of the “S&P500 Earnings Scorecard” (pdf) of December 17, 2018, and represent an aggregation of individual S&P500 component “bottom up” analyst forecasts.  For reference, …

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Standard & Poor’s S&P500 EPS Estimates 2018 2019 – December 13, 2018

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 December 13, 2018: Year 2018 estimates add to the following: -From a “bottom up” perspective, operating earnings of $157.29/share …

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2019 Estimates For S&P500 Earnings & Price Levels

In the December 17, 2018 edition of Barron’s, the cover story is titled “2019 Outlook:  More Sun, Fewer Clouds.”  The subtitle is “U.S. stocks could rally more than 10% in 2019 as the economy grows, earnings rise, and interest rates stay low.” Included in the story, 10 investment strategists give various forecasts for 2019 including …

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Charts Indicating Economic Weakness – December 2018

U.S. Economic Indicators Throughout this site there are many discussions of economic indicators.  At this time, the readings of various indicators are especially notable.  This post is the latest in a series of posts indicating U.S. economic weakness or a notably low growth rate. While many U.S. economic indicators – including GDP – are indicating economic growth, others …

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The December 2018 Wall Street Journal Economic Forecast Survey

The December 2018 Wall Street Journal Economic Forecast Survey was published on December 13, 2018.  The headline is “Economists See U.S.-China Trade War as Biggest Threat in 2019.” I found numerous items to be notable – although I don’t necessarily agree with them – both within the article and in the “Economist Q&A” section. Two …

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December 2018 Duke/CFO Global Business Outlook Survey – Notable Excerpts

On December 12, 2018 the December 2018 Duke/CFO Global Business Outlook was released.  It contains a variety of statistics regarding how CFOs view business and economic conditions. In this CFO survey press release, I found the following to be the most notable excerpts – although I don’t necessarily agree with them: Nearly half (48.6 percent) of …

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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 December 6, 2018 update (reflecting data through November 30, 2018) is -.889. Of course, there are a variety of other measures and indices that are supposed to measure financial stress and other …

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