U-3 And U-6 Unemployment Rate Long-Term Reference Charts As Of November 3, 2017

Shortly after each monthly employment report I have been posting a continual series titled “3 Critical Unemployment Charts.” Of course, there are many other employment charts that can be displayed as well. For reference purposes, below are the U-3 and U-6 Unemployment Rate charts from a long-term historical perspective.  Both charts are from the St. …

Read more

3 Critical Unemployment Charts – November 2017

As I have commented previously, as in the October 6, 2009 post (“A Note About Unemployment Statistics”), in my opinion the official methodologies used to measure the various job loss and unemployment statistics do not provide an accurate depiction; they serve to understate the severity of unemployment. However, even if one chooses to look at the …

Read more

Charts Of Equities’ Performance Since March 9, 2009 And January 1, 1980 – November 2, 2017 Update

In the March 9, 2012 post (“Charts of Equities’ Performance Since March 9, 2009 And January 1, 1980“) I highlighted two charts for reference purposes. Below are those two charts, updated through the latest daily closing price. The first is a daily chart of the S&P500 (shown in green), as well as five prominent (AAPL, IBM, …

Read more

Monthly Stock Index Charts DJIA – DJTA – S&P500 – Nasdaq Composite

StockCharts.com maintains long-term historical charts of various major stock market indices, interest rates, currencies, commodities, and economic indicators. As a long-term reference, below are charts depicting various stock market indices for the dates shown.  All charts are depicted on a monthly basis using a LOG scale. (click on charts to enlarge images)(charts courtesy of StockCharts.com) The …

Read more

U.S. Dollar Decline – November 1, 2017 Update

U.S. Dollar weakness is a foremost concern of mine.  As such, I have extensively written about it.  I am very concerned that the actions being taken to “improve” our economic situation will dramatically weaken the Dollar.  Should the Dollar substantially decline from here, as I expect, the negative consequences will far outweigh any benefits.  The negative impact of a substantial …

Read more

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 October 26, 2017 update (reflecting data through October 20, 2017) is -1.567. Of course, there are a variety of other measures and indices that are supposed to measure financial stress and other …

Read more

Consumer Confidence Surveys – As Of October 31, 2017

Doug Short had a blog post of October 31, 2017 (“Consumer Confidence Highest in 17 Years“) 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 …

Read more

Another Recession Probability Indicator – Updated Through Q2 2017

Each month I have been highlighting various estimates of U.S. recession probabilities.  The latest update was that of October 4, 2017, titled “Recession Probability Models – October 2017.” While I don’t agree with the methodologies employed or the probabilities of impending economic weakness as depicted by these and other estimates, I do believe that the …

Read more