Word: indexes
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...high monthly figure for the trade deficit, for example, can send floods of money rushing out of the stock market in a sell-off. The sheer quantity of statistics available is immense. Nearly every business day the U.S. Government releases one indicator or another, from the Consumer Price Index and capacity utilization to retail sales and housing starts. Too often, however, the overall impact of the numbers is to generate confusion and anxiety. Some of the statistics are subject to repeated revisions. Other gauges fluctuate so wildly from month to month that they seem almost useless. More and more...
Some of the Government's economic compasses may be poorly constructed as well. The index of leading economic indicators, a compilation of statistics designed to predict the direction of the economy, is frequently derided as the "index of misleading economic indicators" because of its uneven forecasting record. After last October's stock-market crash, the index declined for three consecutive months -- normally a strong sign that a recession is on the way. An upward revision in the December figure, however, broke the downward streak, and fears of a recession evaporated...
...discord is the recommendation by the Brady panel that all financial trading should be supervised by one federal regulatory body, instead of two separate ones. Currently, the Securities and Exchange Commission oversees the stock markets and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission regulates the exchanges that deal in stock-index futures. "Having split regulators contributes to the confusion," contends Peter Buchanan, chief executive of Wall Street's First Boston investment firm...
...Reserve, but the Chicago exchanges oppose that move on the ground that they would no longer have their own advocate. At present, the CFTC sticks up for the Chicago markets whenever the SEC tries to fence them in. Earlier this month the CFTC approved two new forms of stock-index contracts -- the first authorized since the crash -- bringing the total number to 18. The Chicago Merc hopes to get approval soon for a futures contract to be based on the Tokyo exchange's Nikkei 225 stock index...
...stock-index futures market is currently suffering from depressed volume, down some 50% on the Chicago Merc compared with May 1987, partly because several major New York investment firms have halted index-arbitrage for their own accounts. While the firms did so largely as a public relations move to calm investor fears, most of them continue to conduct program trading to satisfy customers whose money they manage. Says Max Chapman, president of Kidder, Peabody: "Speculation is not a dirty word...