The Latest WSJ Forecasting Survey

I would like to highlight a couple of facets of the latest Wall Street Journal Forecasting Survey:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125494927938671631.html?mod=djemalertNEWS

As stated, "The Wall Street Journal surveys a group of 52 economists throughout the year. Broad surveys on more than 10 major economic indicators are conducted every month. Once a year, economists are ranked on how well their forecasts have fared. For prior installments of the surveys, see: WSJ.com/Economist ."

I found two aspects particularly interesting. First, with regard to unemployment, "On average the economists -- not all of whom answered every question -- expect the unemployment rate to peak at 10.2% in February."

Second, for all of 2010, the average forecast is for 2.8% GDP growth. This forecast of 2.8% growth has not changed significantly since May's first response.



SPX at 1078.17 as this post is written