The U.S. Economic Situation – December 21, 2018 Update

Perhaps the main reason that I write of our economic situation is that I continue to believe, based upon various analyses, that our economic situation is in many ways misunderstood.  While no one likes to contemplate a future rife with economic adversity, current and future economic problems must be properly recognized and rectified if high-quality, …

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Deflation Probabilities – December 20, 2018 Update

While I do not agree with the current readings of the measure – I think the measure dramatically understates the probability of deflation, as measured by the CPI – the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta maintains an interesting data series titled “Deflation Probabilities.” As stated on the site: Using estimates derived from Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities …

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Jerome Powell’s December 19, 2018 Press Conference – Notable Aspects

On Wednesday, December 19, 2018 Jerome Powell gave his scheduled December 2018 FOMC Press Conference. (link of video and related materials) Below are Jerome Powell’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 …

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Four Charts Of Recent S&P500 Price Volatility – December 20, 2018

This post is an update to past posts regarding stock market volatility. While I track many different measures of volatility, I find the following charts to be both simple and clear in depicting the recent volatility in the stock market. Overall, my analyses indicates that there are many reasons for this volatility, and the volatility is …

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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 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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