Recession Probability

Recession Probability

  Is a recession coming? While a definitive yes-or-no answer to a question like that is virtually impossible, we can get somewhat close by using a model that assigns a probability to the outcome—called a Recession Probability Model. The main ingredients for the...
Leading the Way

Leading the Way

  The FIBER U.S. Weekly Leading Index is a tool economists and investors use to measure economic growth. It’s called a “leading index” because it tends to lead the economic cycle by several months. Since it reveals the direction in which the economy is likely...
Top Watch

Top Watch

  The stock market tends to go up over time. But there are times when it goes up too high, too fast. When this happens, a correction tends to occur, meaning stocks drop at least 10% from a recent high. We don’t always know when a correction is about to occur. But...
Brighter Future

Brighter Future

  Investors often assess a company’s earnings in two ways: by looking at its trailing earnings (the past) and its future earnings (expected). This week’s indicator looks at a combination of both to understand how they influence stock returns. At the...
Inflation Leader

Inflation Leader

  Our nickname for this week’s indicator is the “inflation leader.” Why? Because it tends to lead the broader measures of inflation—like the Producer Price Index and the Consumer Price Index—and can therefore warn us when inflationary pressures are building. The...
Rolling Returns

Rolling Returns

  The writer Jason Zweig once wrote that regression to the mean is the most powerful law in financial physics. By this, he meant that after a period of really good stock market returns, we can expect things to cool down, and after a rough patch, there’s a...