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Financial Indicators
Source: Encyclopedia of Banking & Finance (9h Edition) by Charles J Woelfel
(We recommend this as work of authority.)
      

Measures of performance that are widely used by professionals to make forecasts and evaluations.  The financial indicators which are presented here are not meant to be all inclusive but merely represent widely used indicators.

Interest

Prime rates charged by large commercial banks

Discount rate of the Federal Reserve bank

Federal funds rate

U.S. Treasury Bills yield

Treasury bonds and notes yield

Municipal bonds yield

Long-term corporate AAA bonds

Commercial paper rates

GNMA (Government National Mortgage Association) interest rate

Average annual yield on savings deposits in savings associations

Foreign short-term interest rates

Stock market

The Dow Jones Averages

Over-the-counter market (NASDAQ) indexes

Standard & Poor's 500 stock index

New York Stock Exchange Composite Stock Index

American Stock Exchange Total Index

Price/earnings ratios for common stocks

Common stock yields

Corporate profits

International stock indexes

Economic indicators

Cyclical economic indicators (U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, Business Conditions Digest)

Leading indicators:

New business formation

New building permits

Stock prices

Initial state unemployment insurance claims

Change in sensitive materials prices

Change in credit outstanding

Vendor performance

Average work week hours

Change in inventories

Contracts and orders for plant and equipment

New orders for consumer goods and materials

Money supply (M2)

Coincident indicators:

Industrial production

Employees on nonagricultural payrolls

Personal income

ManufacEagle Tradersg and trade sales

Lagging indicators:

Labor costs (%)

Ratio of consumer installment credit to personal income

Average prime rate charged by banks

Average duration of employment (weeks)

Ratio of inventories to sales

Commercial and industrial loans outstanding

Gross National Product

Money supply

Federal budget deficit or surplus

Foreign exchange rates

U.S. trade balance (imports and exports)

Producer price indexes for major commodity groups (PPI)

Consumer price index for urban consumers (CPI)

Unemployment rate (civilian labor force)

Personal income per capita (by region and state)

Income by households

Average weekly hours of work

Average weekly earnings

U.S. gold prices

U.S. silver prices

Price at well of crude petroleum

Price of regular gasoline

Real estate

New home mortgage yields

FHA and VA maximum interest rates on home mortgages

Regional housing prices

Sales price of existing single-family homes

Medium sales price of existing single-family homes

Construction permits

Top 10 cities for construction permits

Housing starts

Index of construction costs

Consumer price indexes of residential rents

National rental and homeowner vacancy rates

Quoted office rental rates

The federal government is a major source of financial information.  The Department of Commerce, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Bureau of the Census, Monthly Labor Review, the Federal Trade Commission, Federal Reserve System (Economic Indicators; Federal Reserve Bulletin), Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (Business Conditions Digest and Survey of Current Business), Treasury Department, The Economic Report of the President, The Statistical Abstract of the United States, the Organization for Economic Development and Co-operation, and the International Monetary Fund.  Other sources include Dun and Bradstreet, Robert Morris Associates, Standard & Poor's Corporation, Dow Jones Investor's Handbook, Mortgage Bankers Association of America, U.S. League of Savings Institutions, National Association of Realtors, and The World Almanac.

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