Red alert: it was the first time the indicator fell below the 1, 000 points mark in 12 months.
Stock Trader's Almanac founder Yale Hirsch is credited with coming up with the "first five days" indicator, which essentially says that the direction of the first five days of January is predictive of January, which can have bullish implications for the rest of the year.
How's this for a contrary indicator: The first exchange-traded bond index funds debuted last Friday and then were followed by Monday's ferocious stock market rally.
Just this morning, my colleague Jenna Goudreau looked at how first names might be an indicator of success based on trends in the names of professionals at the top of the corporate ladder.
First, developer critical mass is a leading indicator on what will mostly likely sell well.
FORBES: Developers' Interest is a Catalyst for the Amazon Kindle Fire
First, BMI, while not a perfect indicator, does correlate moderately well with body fat.
FORBES: How Useful Is Body Mass Index In Predicting Long-Term Health?
In the first case, the best, most reliable indicator of how an investor will behave (for instance, in volatile markets) is his past behavior.
WSJ: The Experts: What's the Biggest Psychological Trap for Investors?
But on May 15th the short-term yield curve turned positive for the first time in 16 months, usually an indicator that the market thinks enough easing has taken place.
The Stoxx Europe 600 fell 0.2% after Moody's sovereign downgrades late Monday contrasted with positive economic data from Germany, where the ZEW economic sentiment indicator for February rose to its first positive reading since May 2011.
Although there has been slight growth in the European and UK economies in the first half of the year, the manufacturing indicator decline was unexpected and fuels worries that European economies are headed for an extended bumpy ride.
FORBES: Small European Firms Face Tough Manufacturing Marketplace
Growth in the home remodeling industry is expected to clock double-digit gains in the first half of 2013, according to the Leading Indicator of Remodeling Activity.
FORBES: From Pet Spas To Digital Brokerages, The Most Unusual Housing Trends To Track In 2013
As well as coverage here on BBC1 the ceremony is being broadcast live in the United States for the first time and will be watched with keen interest as an indicator for the Oscar voting.
Investors have been trying to stay afloat amid crosscurrents of conflicting economic data, yet it all boils down to one key question: Is the decline in housing a statistical anomaly related to the expiration of the first-time home buyer credit or is it a leading indicator of another sharp decline in the housing market?
Imports, another crucial indicator of economic activity, were also down for the first two months of the second quarter.
As a result, LCD flow name composite, our most real time indicator of market demand, rallied 21 bps during the first week of March to a six week high of 99.8.
This is the first time in a long time I have seen this and is an indicator that OEMs experienced the same battery life characteristics as the reviewers.
FORBES: AMD's Trinity Removes Historical Battery Life Objections
Mr Kristol notes that 1994 was the first election in which going to church, rather than having wealth and flaunting it, was a better indicator of whether or not someone would vote Republican.
"This is another negative indication on top of the missing Santa Claus Rally, a down First Five Days and the Dow closing below its December closing low on January 21 triggering the December Low Indicator, " says Hirsh, who adds that the market is completing a two-year bearish "three peaks and a domed house" pattern coined by technical analyst George Lindsay.
When it said recently it expected the UK economy to shrink slightly in the first quarter of 2012, I did wonder whether the downbeat prediction would turn out to be a counter-indicator - a sign that we had definitely avoided a double dip.
The economic-sentiment indicator for February rose sharply to 5.4 points from -21.6 in January, the first positive reading since May 2011 and much better than consensus expectations.
应用推荐