Saturday, August 2, 2008

Barron's Financial Statistics

The August 4, 2008 edition of Barron's had useful financial statistics. We hear some statistics and their interpretation in the news but what are the rest of the numbers and what do they mean.

2nd Quarter GDP = 1.9%, 1st Quarter GDP = 0.9%: What does this mean? We are not in a recession

June rate of inflation = 5% annualized: What does this mean? We are not in a recession

Index of Coincident and Leading Indicators = Flat during the 2nd Quarter: What does this mean: We are not in a recession.

What are going up: Business Sales, Consumer Spending, Durable Goods, Factory Shipments, Non-Durable Good, Public Spending, Non-Residential Spending, & Exports to name some. These are all good things.

What are going down: Imports, Petroleum Capacity (Not producing at as high a rate to keep prices up), Auto Sales (In the news), & Residential spending (In the news).

What does this mean? Besides the news on auto sales and residential spending things are better than what most people would think. Do not focus on the news and recession fears and keep investing.

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