US ECONOMY (July 14th 2012): CONSUMER SENTIMENT - How We Use Michigan Data, What Did Yesterday's Number Mean?

US Consumer Confidence was released yesterday, declining from 73.2 to 72, the weakest level since December. But why is this a useful indicator for the global economy? How can you use it as an investor to pick out LONG TERM market tops/bottoms or MEDIUM TERM trends and cycles? And what does this latest reading imply about the US and Global Economy? There are two...

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US ECONOMY (July 12th 2012): Today's Weekly Jobless Claims Preview

Today sees the release of the US Weekly Jobless Claims. After bitterly disappointing Non-Farm Payrolls last week, and the first sub-50 reading for ISM Manufacturing, the spotlight is firmly fixed on the US economy -- and Weekly Claims has been a very useful indicator so far this year. Interestingly, despite the repeated disappointments in the Payrolls data, Jobless Claims...

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PRE-MARKET (July 11th 2012): Can We Break the 4 Day Losing Streak?

    PRE-MARKET for US trading on July 11th 2012. Yesterday saw US indices post their fourth consecutive day of losses -- courtesy of profit warnings from some big industrial names in the States, giving the market more reasons to worry about the growth outlook for 2012.   This slow/no growth scenario has been reflected in the leading economic...

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US ECONOMY (July 6th 2012): Our Problem With Non Fam Payrolls and Unemployment Data

Yesterday saw the release of two important US unemployment statistics - the ADP Jobs Report and the Weekly Unemployment Claims. USING UNEMPLOYMENT DATA AS INVESTORS In previous articles, we've written on how Weekly Claims are often an interesting indicator for the trend in economic conditions - for the LONG TERM by pulling up a yearly 2000-2012 chart, and even on...

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GLOBAL ECONOMY (July 3rd 2012): What You Need to Know About ISM and Global PMIs

The big economic news on Monday was the release of the US ISM Manufacturing PMI. At Big Macro Picture, we consider this to be the most important global economic indicator of the month - moreso than the Non-Farm Payrolls, which gathers more attention amongst traders and the financial press. As well as ISM PMI data, Monday also saw the release of 25 other significant economic...

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