It's The Economy Stupid: The Finish

I’ve gotten a couple of emails about this morning’s economic numbers and the veracity of them.  Look, all the actual number-numbers are BS more or less.  They don’t measure every job, every household, every consumer, every employer, etc.  Don’t get caught up in the numbers.  Think of them as an indicator of direction and velocity. 

 

So many of these numbers have been refigured and changed over the years to make them almost incomparable to previous periods of economic expansion and contraction. 

 

So just don’t get caught up in the minutia.  Just look at the direction and the velocity of change as your economic indicator.

 

Description	Ticker	Last	CHANGE	% Chg Today	Pct Chg 1Yr
STOCK MARKETS
Dow Jones Industrial Average	INDU Index	12862.230	156.8200	1.2343	6.6220
S&P 500 Index	SPX Index	1344.900	19.3600	1.4605	2.8858
NASDAQ Composite Index	CCMP Index	2905.660	45.9800	1.6079	5.5115
Russell 3000 Index	RAY Index	801.040	12.2300	1.5504	2.9470
Russell 2000 Index (Small)	RTY Index	831.100	18.2100	2.2402	4.0570
S&P 400 Mid Cap Index	MID Index	971.440	15.7000	1.6427	3.4321
S&P 600 Small Cap Index	SML Index	463.770	9.9400	2.1903	9.5689
TREASURIES	% Yield
3 Month Treasury	0.0763		-0.0050	-6.6667
6 Month Treasury	0.0966		0.0000	0.0000
2 Year Treasury	0.2342	100.031	-0.0234	-0.0234
5 Year Treasury	0.7757	100.492	-0.3281	-0.3255
10 Year Treasury	1.9276	100.656	-0.9375	-0.9228
30 Year Treasury	3.1297	99.969	-2.4219	-2.3653
ENERGY
Crude Oil, Brent Index	Brent	114.600	2.5300	2.2575	10.6025
Crude Oil, Louisiana Light Sweet	LA Light Sweet	112.560	1.3000	1.1684	8.7600
Natural Gas, Henry Hub Index	Nat Gas	2.509	-0.0450	-1.7619	-49.5185
PRECIOUS METALS
Spot Gold $/oz	GOLD	1725.430	-34.0500	-1.9352	27.4006
Spot Silver $/oz	SILVER	33.618	-0.6900	-2.0112	16.3169
CURRENCIES
Euro	EUR Curncy	1.314	-0.0002	-0.0152	-3.5866
Japanese Yen	JPY Curncy	76.560	0.3400	0.4461	6.6362
British Pound	GBP Curncy	1.582	0.0010	0.0633	-1.9769
Swiss Franc	CHF Curncy	0.919	0.0019	0.2072	2.9617
Canadian Dollar	CAD Curncy	0.993	-0.0061	-0.6104	-0.2416
Chinese Yuan	CNY Curncy	6.306	0.0004	0.0063	4.4085
FOREIGN INDICIES
FTSE 100 INDEX	UK	5901.070	105.0000	1.8116	-1.3750
CAC 40 INDEX	FRANCE	3427.920	51.2600	1.5181	-15.0788
DAX INDEX	GERMANY	6766.670	111.0400	1.6684	-5.9359
NIKKEI 225 INDEX	JAPAN	8831.930	-44.8900	-0.5057	-16.2336
HANG SENG INDEX	HONG KONG	20756.980	17.5300	0.0845	-13.1833

 

 

 

 

John Broussard

Assistant State Treasurer

Chief Investment Officer

State of Louisiana

Department of the Treasury