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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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