BUSINESS INFORMATION CENTER

INDICATORS

Indicators covered in this research guide are those most related to business and finance. Should other indicators such as social and political indicators be relevant to particular business decisions or assignments, please consult with a business librarian or consider using some of the resources in the Demographics Research Guide.

GENERAL

Bloomberg database provides access to a wide range of all types of indicators. Included are such items as the Consumer Price Index, worldwide economic announcements, market trends, and currency movements. A good place to start is with command words such as ECST [world economic statistics]. Consult the "Quick Tips" sheet in the manual (available at the front desk) for other starting places. Note: An overview workshop is suggested before undertaking major use of the terminal. A stand alone terminal is available in the Business Information Center to current SMU students, staff, and faculty.(Restricted Resource -A valid SMU ID is required for access)

PONI catalog, some of the following subject headings may aid your search: Economic indicators, Economic indicators - Periodicals, Business cycles, Capital market, Capital movements, Economic forecasting, Monetary policy, Stock price forecasting, Stock price indexes.

LexisNexis Statistical This database contains a wide variety of indicators. Searches may be qualified by geographic, demographic, economic or frequency of reporting criteria. Also included are forecasts and polls. Much of the content is available in tables and searches may be limited to items containing Excel spreadsheets.

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FINANCIAL INDICATORS

The Conference Board Global business cycle indicators are provided by the Board as part of their mission to help businesses strengthen their market performance. Indicators are provided for the U.S., Australia, France, Germany, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Spain, and the United Kingdom. The Index to Leading Economic Indicators is an important approach to assessing global economic stability and growth.

Financial Forecast Center by Applied Reasoning, a company that makes artificial intelligence software. This site provides forecasts, including: Prime Interest Rate Forecast, Crude Oil Price Forecast, Dow Jones Industrial Average Stock Index Forecast, NASDAQ Composite Stock Index Forecast, Home Mortgage Interest Rate Forecast, and the Euro Currency Exchange Rate Forecast.

Interest Rates Brief historical data from MoneyCafe.com

Survey of Current Business provided by the Bureau of Economic Analysis, it includes current and historical business indicator data.

MARKET INDICATORS

Alphas and Betas The details of how these important measures of stock value are measured are provided by Baker Library at Harvard.

eBooks go to http://www.netlibrary.com/ and search for "market indicators" or "investment analysis". [note: if this is your first time to use netLibrary and you are accessing from off campus, use this link, where you will be required to authenticate your access and then may initiate a free account.]

Finance Topics at Wikipedia A wide variety of definitions and links to major financial web sites have been industriously collected in Wikipedia and would be particularly useful to students needing materials to augment classroom and textbook experiences.

Federal Reserve Bank of New York The New York Fed provides financial market datasets for Business Finance, Household Debt Statistics, Interest Rates and Stock Price Indexes and Valuation Ratios.

OPEC Market Indicators OPEC provides oil industry trend data including annual spot prices and supply and demand information.

Also see: the Financial Markets Research Guide

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ECONOMIC INDICATORS

Border Business Indicators(Texas) from a legislatively founded consortium of Texas universities - data is provided about the socioeconomic status of communities on the U.S.-Mexico border.

Bureau of Economic Analysis The government agency, a subsidiary of the Department of Commerce, responsible for providing macro economic official estimates for GDP, personal income, profits and other indicators. Datasets include national, regional, international and major industry account perspectives.

Bureau of Labor Statistics The government agency within the U.S. Department of Labor that provided data on inflation and consumer spending; wages, earnings, and benefits; productivity; safety and health; international transactions; occupations; and demographics. Useful information by industry and employment/unemployment is available.

County Business Patterns This data from the U.S. Census Bureau provides tabular information accessed by NAICS (SIC) codes organized by county, state, and zip code.

Economic Statistics Briefing Room The White House web site contains this very accessible set of factual displays about important economic indicators.

Economy at a Glance BEA - Multi-year graphs and geographical distribution maps show at a glance principal macro indicators for the U.S.

Economy at a Glance BLS - A quick view of the Unemployment Rate, Change in Payroll Employment, Average Hourly Earnings, CPI, PPI, U.S. Import Price Index, Employment Cost Index, and Productivity.

FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data) the Federal Reserve Bank of St.Louis - presents "a database of over 3000 U.S. economic time series".

National Bureau of Economic Research Private, nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization with main offices in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Data displayed is Business Cycle Reference Dates.

Rural Economy at a Glance Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City - This site provides "a monthly summary of the rural nonfarm and farm economies".

Small Business Indicators A substantial set of indicators is provided by the U.S. Small Business Administration describing quarterly the status of growth in the small business sector.

Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies An Austrian think tank with "first-hand expertise on Central and Eastern Europe, CIS and the Balkans".

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Updated October 2006