The State of the Union Address – Notable Excerpts

I found President Obama’s State of the Union Address (transcript from the Wall Street Journal) last night to contain some noteworthy comments.  While I could comment extensively on many parts of the speech, for now I will indicate excerpts that I found most relevant with regard to the economic situation, and may comment upon them at a future point.  I am highlighting these excerpts for many reasons; it should be noted that I do not necessarily agree with all of them.

Here are the excerpts I found most relevant, in the order they occurred in the speech:

Let’s face it:  That belief has suffered some serious blows. Over more than three decades, even before the Great Recession hit, massive shifts in technology and global competition had eliminated a lot of good, middle-class jobs, and weakened the economic foundations that families depend on.

Today, after four years of economic growth, corporate profits and stock prices have rarely been higher, and those at the top have never done better.  But average wages have barely budged.  Inequality has deepened.  Upward mobility has stalled.  The cold, hard fact is that even in the midst of recovery, too many Americans are working more than ever just to get by, let alone to get ahead.  And too many still aren’t working at all.

also:

Opportunity is who we are.  And the defining project of our generation must be to restore that promise.  We know where to start:  The best measure of opportunity is access to a good job. With the economy picking up speed, companies say they intend to hire more people this year.  And over half of big manufacturers say they’re thinking of insourcing jobs from abroad.  (Applause.)

also:

The ideas I’ve outlined so far can speed up growth and create more jobs.  But in this rapidly changing economy, we have to make sure that every American has the skills to fill those jobs.  The good news is we know how to do it.

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The Special Note summarizes my overall thoughts about our economic situation

SPX at 1792.50 as this post is written

House Prices Reference Chart

As a reference for long-term house price index trends, below is a chart, updated with the most current data (through November, except for the Case-Shiller National Index, which is through September), from the CalculatedRisk blog post of January 28 titled “Comment on House Prices: Real Prices, Price-to-Rent Ratio, Cities” :

(click on chart to enlarge image)

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The Special Note summarizes my overall thoughts about our economic situation

SPX at 1792.50 as this post is written

Durable Goods New Orders – Long-Term Charts Through December 2013

Many people place emphasis on Durable Goods New Orders as a prominent economic indicator and/or leading economic indicator.

For reference, below are charts depicting this measure.

First, from the St. Louis Fed site (FRED), a chart through December, last updated on January 28.  This value is 229,319 ($ Millions) :

(click on charts to enlarge images)

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Here is the chart depicting this measure on a “Percentage Change from a Year Ago” basis:

Data Source: FRED, Federal Reserve Economic Data, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis: Manufacturers’ New Orders:  Durable Goods [DGORDER] ; U.S. Department of Commerce: Census Bureau ; accessed January 28, 2014;

http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/DGORDER

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I post various indicators and indices because I believe they should be carefully monitored.  However, as those familiar with this blog are aware, I do not necessarily agree with what they depict or imply.

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The Special Note summarizes my overall thoughts about our economic situation

SPX at 1793.34 as this post is written

VIX Monthly And Weekly Charts Since Year 2000

For reference purposes, below are two charts of the VIX from year 2000 through yesterday's (January 27, 2014) close.

Here is the VIX Monthly chart, depicted on a LOG scale, with price labels as well as the 13- and 34-month moving averages, seen in the cyan and red lines, respectively:

(click on chart to enlarge image)(chart courtesy of StockCharts.com; chart creation and annotation by the author)

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Here is the VIX Weekly chart, depicted on a LOG scale, with price labels as well as the 13- and 34-week moving average, seen in the cyan and red lines, respectively:

(click on chart to enlarge image)(chart courtesy of StockCharts.com; chart creation and annotation by the author)

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The Special Note summarizes my overall thoughts about our economic situation

SPX at 1781.56 as this post is written

Trends Of S&P500 Earnings Forecasts

S&P500 earnings trends and estimates are a notably important topic, for a variety of reasons, at this point in time.

FactSet publishes a report titled “Earnings Insight” that contains a variety of information including the trends and expectations of S&P500 earnings.

For reference purposes, here are two charts as seen in the “Earnings Insight” (pdf) report of January 24, 2014:

from page 17:

(click on charts to enlarge images)

CY Bottom-Up EPS vs. Top-Down Mean EPS (Trailing 26-Weeks) 

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from page 18:

Calendar Year Bottom-Up EPS Actuals & Estimates

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I post various economic forecasts because I believe they should be carefully monitored.  However, as those familiar with this blog are aware, I do not agree with many of the consensus estimates and much of the commentary in these forecast surveys.

_____

The Special Note summarizes my overall thoughts about our economic situation

SPX at 1783.42 as this post is written

S&P500 Earnings Estimates For Years 2013, 2014, And 2015

As many are aware, Thomson Reuters publishes earnings estimates for the S&P500.  (My other posts concerning S&P earnings estimates can be found under the S&P500 Earnings label)

The following estimates are from Exhibit 12 of “The Director’s Report” (pdf) of January 24, 2014, and represent an aggregation of individual S&P500 component “bottom up” analyst forecasts:

Year 2013 estimate:

$108.97/share

Year 2014 estimate:

$120.46/share

Year 2015 estimate:

$133.31/share

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I post various economic forecasts because I believe they should be carefully monitored.  However, as those familiar with this blog are aware, I do not agree with many of the consensus estimates and much of the commentary in these forecast surveys.

_____

The Special Note summarizes my overall thoughts about our economic situation

SPX at 1790.29 as this post is written

Standard & Poor’s S&P500 Earnings Estimates For 2013 & 2014 – As Of January 16, 2014

As many are aware, Standard & Poor’s publishes earnings estimates for the S&P500.  (My posts concerning their estimates can be found under the S&P500 Earnings label)

For reference purposes, the most current estimates are reflected below, and are as of January 16, 2014:

Year 2013 estimates add to the following:

-From a “bottom up” perspective, operating earnings of $107.38/share

-From a “top down” perspective, operating earnings of N/A

-From a “top down” perspective, “as reported” earnings of $99.42/share

Year 2014 estimates add to the following:

-From a “bottom up” perspective, operating earnings of $121.30/share

-From a “top down” perspective, operating earnings of $123.63/share

-From a “top down” perspective, “as reported” earnings of $119.70/share

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I post various economic forecasts because I believe they should be carefully monitored.  However, as those familiar with this blog are aware, I do not agree with many of the consensus estimates and much of the commentary in these forecast surveys.

_____

The Special Note summarizes my overall thoughts about our economic situation

SPX at 1794.28 as this post is written

Long-Term Charts Of The ECRI WLI & ECRI WLI, Gr. – January 24, 2014 Update

As I stated in my July 12, 2010 post (“ECRI WLI Growth History“):

For a variety of reasons, I am not as enamored with ECRI’s WLI and WLI Growth measures as many are.

However, I do think the measures are important and deserve close monitoring and scrutiny.

The movement of the ECRI WLI and WLI, Gr. is particularly notable at this time, as ECRI publicly announced on September 30, 2011 that the U.S. was “tipping into recession,” and ECRI has reiterated the view that the U.S. economy is currently in a recession, seen most recently in these twelve sources :

• FOX Business video, January 22, 2014, "Secular Stagnation"
• BNN video, January 15, 2014, “Cyclical & Secular Outlook“
• CNBC interview, January 14, 2014, “Cyclical Outlook“
• BNN video, November 14, 2013, “Fed Policy & the Business Cycle“
• Bloomberg video, November 4, 2013, “Major Central Bank Actions in Line with ECRI“
• Bloomberg video, July 30, 2013, “U.S. Recession Began in 2012, ECRI’s Achuthan Says“
• ECRI, July 30, 2013, “Becoming Japan“
• ECRI, May 31, 2013, “What Wealth Effect?“
• ECRI, April 26, 2013, “Nominal GDP Growth Falls Again“
• ECRI, April 7, 2013, “Interview on Jobs & Recession” video
• ECRI, March 8, 2013, Interview Summary (provides links to 3 video interviews)
• ECRI, March 5, 2013, “Recession in the Yo-Yo Years“ (provides a link to a 17-page ECRI report dated March 2013 titled “The U.S. Business Cycle in the Context of the Yo-Yo Years”)

Other past notable year 2012 reaffirmations of the September 30, 2011 recession call by ECRI were seen (in chronological order) on March 15 (“Why Our Recession Call Stands”) as well as various interviews and statements the week of May 6, including:

• Bloomberg video, May 9, 2012:  ”Lakshman Achuthan on Renewed U.S. Recession Call: Video“
• ECRI, May 9, 2012:  ”Revoking Recession:  48th Time’s The Charm?”
• Wall Street Journal video, May 9, 2012:  “Free Market Economies Have Business Cycles”
• ECRI, May 11, 2012:  “Rising GDP Doesn’t Rule Out Recession”

Also, subsequent to May 2012:

• Bloomberg video, July 10, 2012:  “Recession Here”
• ECRI, September 7, 2012:  “Recession Evidence Obscured in Real Time”
• ECRI, September 13, 2012:  “The 2012 Recession:  Are We There Yet?”
• Bloomberg video, September 13, 2012:  “Recession Update.”
• CNN video, November 29, 2012:  “Official Recession Indicators“
• CNN video, November 29, 2012:  “ECRI Recession Update“
• Yahoo video, November 29, 2012: “Ignore GDP and the Fiscal Cliff, U.S. Is Already in Recession“
• Bloomberg video, November 29, 2012:  “Recession Underway“
• CNBC video, December 7, 2012:  “Definitional Recession Indicators“
• ECRI, December 7, 2012:  “The Tell-Tale Chart” including this excerpt:  “Reviewing the indicators used to officially decide U.S. recession dates, it looks like the recession began around July 2012.”

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Below are three long-term charts, from Doug Short’s blog post of January 24, 2014 titled “ECRI Recession Watch:  Weekly Update.”  These charts are on a weekly basis through the January 24 release, indicating data through January 17, 2014.

Here is the ECRI WLI (defined at ECRI’s glossary):

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This next chart depicts, on a long-term basis, the Year-over-Year change in the 4-week moving average of the WLI:

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This last chart depicts, on a long-term basis, the WLI, Gr.:

_________

I post various economic indicators and indices because I believe they should be carefully monitored.  However, as those familiar with this blog are aware, I do not necessarily agree with what they depict or imply.

_____

The Special Note summarizes my overall thoughts about our economic situation

SPX at 1799.18 as this post is written