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ECRI Recession Watch: Weekly Update
The Weekly Leading Index (WLI) of the Economic Cycle Research Institute (ECRI) is at 132.3, an increase from last weeks 131.5. The WLI annualized growth indicator (WLIg) rose to 4.1% from last weeks 3.9%.... At this point the company is still featuring a commentary posted at the end of July, Becoming Japan, which highlights the decline in GDP growth for Japan and seven other major economies, including the US.
ECRI Recession Watch: Weekly Update
Last year ECRI switched focus to their version of the Big Four Economic Indicators that I routinely track. But when those failed last summer to "roll over" collectively (as ECRI claimed was happening), the company published a new set of indicators to support their recession call in a commentary entitled The U.S. Business Cycle in the Context of the Yo-Yo Years (PDF format). Subsequently the company took a new approach to its recession call in a publicly available commentary on the ECRI website: What Wealth Effect?.
The Big Four Economic Indicators: Nonfarm Employment
Ive now updated this commentary to include todays release of the August Nonfarm Employment data. As the adjacent thumbnail illustrates, the trend in this indicator has been ever upward, but at a frustratingly slow pace. Todays announcement of only 169K new jobs was below forecasts. Moreover, the nonfarm jobs number for July was revised downward from 188K to 172K and the June number was revised downward from 162K to 104K for a combined decline of 74K from last months report.
Is the Stock Market Cheap?
Click to viewHere is a new update of a popular market valuation method using the most recent Standard & Poors "as reported" earnings and earnings estimates and the index monthly averages of daily closes for the past month, which is 1670.09. The ratios in parentheses use the monthly close of 1632.97. For the earnings, see the table below created from Standard & Poors latest earnings spreadsheet.
ECRI Recession Watch: Weekly Update
The Weekly Leading Index (WLI) of the Economic Cycle Research Institute (ECRI) is at 131.8, essentially unchanged from last weeks 131.7 (a downward revision from 131.8). At the end of July the company posted a new commentary, Becoming Japan, which highlights the decline in GDP growth for Japan and seven other major economies, including the US. Also this week ECRIs Lakshman Achuthan defended his companys recession call on Bloomberg TV.
Is the Stock Market Cheap?
Here is a new update of a popular market valuation method using the most recent Standard & Poors "as reported" earnings and earnings estimates and the index monthly averages of daily closes for the past month, which is 1668.68. The ratios in parentheses use the monthly close of 1685.73. For the earnings, see the table below created from Standard & Poors latest earnings spreadsheet.
ECRI Recession Watch: Weekly Update
ECRI posts its proprietary indicators on a one-week delayed basis to the general public, but last year the company switched its focus to a version of the Big Four Economic Indicators Ive been tracking for the past year. In recent months, however, those indicators have slipped below the fold, replaced by the mixed bag of whatever Indicator du Jour might look recessionary, as in the "Yo-Yo Years" commentary.
Is the Stock Market Cheap?
Here is a new update of a popular market valuation method using the most recent Standard & Poors "as reported" earnings and earnings estimates and the index monthly averages of daily closes for the past month, which is 1618.77. The ratios in parentheses use the monthly close of 1606.28. For the earnings, see the table below created from Standard & Poors latest earnings spreadsheet.
Regardless of a QE Taper, the US Market Is Due for a Correction
The media response to the post-FOMC market behavior has been dramatic. Today weve even been treated to some intra-Fed fisticuffs, with St. Louis Fed President James Bullard openly criticizing his colleagues for apparently giving presumably lame-duck Chairman Bernanke license to discuss QE taper timelines in his Wednesday press conference.
ECRI Recession Watch: Weekly Update
Ultimately my opinion remains unchanged: The ECRIs credibility depends on major downward revisions to the key economic indicators -- especially the July annual revisions to GDP -- that will be sufficient to validate their early recession call. Of course, the July revisions will be quite controversial this year, with some major accounting changes and revisions in annual GDP back to 1929. So if we dont get the downward revisions to support ECRI, they can always question the accounting changes in the revision process.
ECRI Recession Watch: New Update
The Weekly Leading Index (WLI) of the Economic Cycle Research Institute (ECRI) is at 131.3, up slightly from last weeks 131.0 (revised from 130.9). The WLI annualized growth indicator (WLIg) rose to 6.6% from 6.4% last week (revised from 6.3%)....
Two weeks ago the company took a new approach to its recession call in its most recent publicly available commentary on the ECRI website: What Wealth Effect?
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The Big Four Economic Indicators: Real Personal Income Less Transfer Payments
Ive now updated this commentary to include April Real Personal Income less Transfer Payments. As Ive discussed before, the adjacent thumbnail shows the major spike in incomes triggered by pulling early 2013 income forward in November and December (bonuses, dividends, etc.) to manage the tax risks of the Fiscal Cliff. At this point weve recovered from the post-strategy dip, so the trend going forward will give a more realistic sense of where this indicator is heading.
Recession Watch: ECRI's Weekly Leading Indicator Declines
Essentially ECRI is sticking to its call that a recession began in mid-2012, although the company calls it a "mild" recession, which is quite a shift from their original stance 19 months ago: "...if you think this is a bad economy, you havent seen anything yet."
Recession Watch: ECRI's Weekly Leading Indicator Continues to Show Improvement
Essentially ECRI is sticking to its call that a recession began in mid-2012, although the company calls it a "mild" recession, which is quite a shift from their original stance 19 months ago: "...if you think this is a bad economy, you havent seen anything yet."
Is the Stock Market Cheap?
Here is a new update of a popular market valuation method using the most recent Standard & Poors "as reported" earnings and earnings estimates and the index monthly averages of daily closes for the past month, which is 1,570.70. The ratios in parentheses use the monthly close of 1,597.57. For the earnings, see the table below created from Standard & Poors latest earnings spreadsheet.
Recession Watch: ECRI's Weekly Leading Indicator Rises Again
Essentially ECRI is sticking to its call that a recession began in mid-2012, although the company now calls it a "mild" recession, which is quite a shift from their original stance 18 months ago: "...if you think this is a bad economy, you havent seen anything yet."
Recession Watch: ECRI's Weekly Leading Indicator Rises
Essentially ECRI is sticking to its call that a recession began in mid-2012, although the company now calls it a "mild" recession, which is quite a shift from their original stance 18 months ago: "...if you think this is a bad economy, you havent seen anything yet."
ECRI's Recession Indicators Decline from the Previous Week
Today ECRI has added a new headline on the website, Employment Growth Hits New Low, based on data from todays jobs report. Essentially ECRI is sticking to its call that a recession began in mid-2012, although the company now calls it a "mild" recession, which is quite a shift from their original stance 18 months ago: "...if you think this is a bad economy, you havent seen anything yet."
Is the Stock Market Cheap?
Click to viewHere is a new update of a popular market valuation method using the most recent Standard & Poors "as reported" earnings and earnings estimates and the index monthly averages of daily closes for the past month, which is 1,550.83. The ratios in parentheses use the monthly close of 1,569.19. For the earnings, see the table below created from Standard & Poors latest earnings spreadsheet.
ECRI Recession Indicator: Unchanged from Last Week
The Weekly Leading Index (WLI) of the Economic Cycle Research Institute (ECRI) to one decimal place is unchanged from last week. It is now at 129.7, the same as last weeks downward revision from 129.8. The WLI annualized growth indicator (WLIg) has risen fractionally to 6.6%, up from last weeks 6.3%. Those of us who regularly follow ECRIs publicly available data and commentaries understand that there is no logical connection between ECRIs proprietary indicators and their "pronounced, pervasive and persistent" recession call of September 2011.
ECRIs "Recession" Indicators: Unchanged from Last Week
The only new ECRI-related news since last Fridays update is a CBS Moneywatch commentary, Can the stock market rise while the economy stalls? ECRI liked the commentary well enough to reprint it on the companys website. It basically reiterates Achuthans point in the "Yo-Yo Years" essay that its possible for the market to rise during a recession, citing three such instances (of the 15 recessions) since the Roaring Twenties.
ECRIs Recession Call: Proprietary Indicators Still Not Cooperating
The Weekly Leading Index (WLI) of the Economic Cycle Research Institute (ECRI) rose in todays update. It is now at 129.9 versus the previous weeks 129.5 (revised upward from 129.3). The WLI annualized growth indicator (WLIg) has eased, now at 6.3, down from last weeks 6.4 (an upward revision from 6.2).
The Big Four Economic Indicators: Industrial Production and Real Retail Sales
With the exception of Real Personal Income Less Transfer Payments (e.g., Social Security, Supplementary Security Income, workers compensation, etc.), the Big Four continue to show expansion. The seemingly bizarre income data is the result of the end-of-year strategy of early bonuses and moving forward of 2013 income to avoid higher taxes. Weve seen this situation before in the 1990s. The PI anomaly is the reason the average for the Big Four (the gray line above) has shows contraction for the past two months.
Some Stunning Demographic Trends in Employment
I spent much of yesterday reviewing the latest employment report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). They have a wealth of employment data, much of which stretches back to 1948. My focus was the Labor Force Participation Rate (LFPR) with some specific attention to gender and age. The LFPR is a simple computation: You take the Civilian Labor Force and divide it by the Civilian Noninstitutional Population. The result is the participation rate expressed as a percent.
ECRI "Recession" Update: Lakshman Achuthan Stands his Ground
The big news this week is the ECRI's Chief Operating Officer and spokesman, Lakshman Achuthan, returned to the media circuit with interviews yesterday on Bloomberg, CNBC and Yahoo's Daily Ticker. In addition, ECRI has published a new commentary available to the general public.
Is the Stock Market Cheap?
Here is a new update of a popular market valuation method using the most recent Standard & Poor's "as reported" earnings and earnings estimates and the index monthly averages of daily closes for the past month, which is 1,512.31. The ratios in parentheses use the monthly close of 1,514.68. For the earnings, see the table below created from Standard & Poor's latest earnings spreadsheet.
ECRI "Recession" Update: Proprietary Indicators Slip Again
ECRI adamantly denied that the sharp decline of their indicators in 2010 marked the beginning of a recession. But in 2011, when their proprietary indicators were at levels higher than 2010, they made their recession call with stunning confidence bordering on arrogance.
The Big Four Economic Indicators: Real Personal Income Less Transfer Payments
I've now updated this commentary to include the January Personal Income data, the red line in the chart below. As expected, the January brought the inevitable reversal of the dramatic advance in the November and December data, which was a result of moving income forward to manage the tax risk in anticipation of the Fiscal Cliff. The -4.7% decline in January essentially cancels the 1.4% rise in November and 3% rise in December.
ECRI "Recession" Update: Proprietary Indicators Slip Again
ECRI adamantly denied that the sharp decline of their indicators in 2010 marked the beginning of a recession. But in 2011, when their proprietary indicators were at levels higher than 2010, they made their recession call with stunning confidence bordering on arrogance...
ECRI "Recession" Update: Propietary Indicators Take a Pause
The Weekly Leading Index (WLI) of the Economic Cycle Research Institute (ECRI) slipped fractionally in today's update. It is now at 129.6 versus the previous week's 130.2.The WLI annualized growth indicator (WLIg) also eased, now at 8.3, down from last week's 8.9. WLIg has been in expansion territory since August 10th of last year, but is is fractionally off its interim high set last week.
ECRI "Recession" Update: Leading Index Growth Sets Another Interim High
First a flashback for those of us who have followed ECRI's media appearances: we know that the company adamantly denied that the sharp decline of their indicators in 2010 marked the beginning of a recession. But in 2011, when their proprietary indicators were at levels higher than 2010, they made their recession call with stunning confidence bordering on arrogance...
Is the Stock Market Cheap?
Here is a new update of a popular market valuation method using the most recent Standard & Poor's "as reported" earnings and earnings estimates and the index monthly averages of daily closes for the past month, which is 1,480.40. The ratios in parentheses use the monthly close of 1,498.11.
ECRI "Recession" Update: Leading Index Growth Hits Another Interim High
ECRI posts its proprietary indicators on one-week delayed basis to the general public, but ECRI's Lakshman Achuthan has switched focus to his company's version of the Big Four Economic Indicators I've been tracking for the past several months. See, for example, this November 29thBloomberg video that ECRI continues to feature on their website. Achuthan pinpoints July as the business cycle peak, thus putting us in at the beginning of the eighth month of a recession.
The Big Four Economic Indicators: Nonfarm Employment
Note from dshort: This commentary has been revised to include the latest Nonfarm Employment data released today.... Nonfarm Employment rose 0.12% in January, following 0.15% and 0.18% gains in December and November, respectively. The Year-over-year increase is 1.52%. Nonfarm employment has been the tortoise of the Big Four, slow and steady. The average MoM change over the past 12 months has been 0.13%, and the range has been 0.07% to 0.20% -- no contractions.
ECRI "Recession" Update: Leading Index Growth Hits a New Interim High
For a few months, ECRI's indicators cooperated with their forecast, but that has not been the case in the second half of 2012 -- hence, I surmise, their switch to the traditional Big Four recession indicators. ECRI's December 7th article,The Tell-Tale Chart, makes clear their public focus on the Big Four.
ECRI's Public Indicators Continue to Undermine Their Insistance That We're in a Recession
For a few months, ECRI's indicators cooperated with their forecast, but that has not been the case in the second half of 2012 -- hence, I surmise, their switch to the traditional Big Four recession indicators. ECRI's December 7th article, The Tell-Tale Chart, makes clear their public focus on the Big Four.
The Big Four Economic Indicators: Real Retail Sales and Industrial Production Both Rise
The charts don't all show us the individual behavior of the Big Four leading up to the 2007 recession. To achieve that goal, I've plotted the same data using a "percent off high" technique. In other words, I show successive new highs as zero and the cumulative percent declines of months that aren't new highs. The advantage of this approach is that it helps us visualize declines more clearly and to compare the depth of declines for each indicator and across time (e.g., the short 2001 recession versus the Great Recession). Here is my own four-pack showing the indicators with this technique.
ECRI's Imaginary Recession: Now in Its Seventh Month
The Weekly Leading Index (WLI) of the Economic Cycle Research Institute (ECRI) rose in the latest public data. It is now at 128.3 versus the previous week's 126.6 (which is an upward revision from 126.4). Likewise the WLI annualized growth indicator (WLIg) rose, now at 5.1, up from last week's 5.0. WLIg has been in expansion territory since August 24th, although it is off its 6.0 interim high on October 12th.
Is the Stock Market Cheap?
Here is a new update of a popular market valuation method using the most recent Standard & Poor's "as reported" earnings and earnings estimates and the index monthly averages of daily closes for the past month, which is 1,422.29. The ratios in parentheses use the monthly close of 1,426.19.
ECRI Update: Flunking Recession 101
The Weekly Leading Index (WLI) of the Economic Cycle Research Institute (ECRI) rose in the latest public data. It is now at 128.3 versus the previous week's 127.2. Likewise the WLI annualized growth indicator (WLIg) rose, now at 5.4, up from last week's 4.6. WLIg has been in expansion territory since August 24th, although it is off its 6.0 interim high on October 12th.
Results 101–150
of 292 found.
