- The Dow rose by more than points on Friday.
- That’s happened five times in the last four decades, and four of those times heralded recessions.
(A comprehensive economic indicator is flirting with a year-over-year decline.
It hasn’t been the most exciting week for the stock market, but the Dow Jones Industrial Average strung together enough winning sessions to plow back into record territory.
Following a three-month streak of backbreaking declines, the US economy finally appears to be stabilizing. But one comprehensive metric is getting dangerously chummy with a recessionary red flag.
Dow Speeds Toward (***************************************************************************,
Wall Street’s three most closely-watched indices extended their record-setting rally to close the week . TheDow Jones Industrial Averagejumped (****************************************************************. ******************************************************************** points or 0. (% to) , 8.
The Dow rose in four out of five sessions this week, securing net gains of more than 480 points.
The S&Poutperformed its peers, adding (****************************************************************************. ****************************************************************** (points or 0.) ****************************************************************** (% to climb to 3, 220. (**************************************************************************. The Nasdaq rounded out a bullish day for US stocks with gains of********************************************************************** (points or 0.) **************************************************************%. The index last traded at 8, (******************************************************. (****************************************************************************.
Remarkably, the risk-on pivot put little pressure on the gold price, which edged just 0. 09% lower. US Treasury bond yields also ticked up, and the yield on the – year note is nudging closer and closer to 2%.
Comprehensive Economic Index Edges Dangerously Close to Recession Alarm
This year has been an odd one for the US economy. While the bold recession warnings that accompanied 2018 ‘s fourth-quarter stock market correction have been proven vacuous, many of the data points don’t look that impressive when isolated from those forecasts.
All the while, perma-bears have still found plenty of evidence to augment their doom-and-gloom predictions. Ironically, it’s often the same evidence that Dow Jones bulls use to support their much rosier forecasts.
Case in point: The Conference Board’s Leading Economic Index (LEI)
The index had contracted for three straight months
First, economists had expected the index to fare slightly better than unchanged. (The consensus forecast was growth of 0.1%).
Second, the LEI’s six-month average is still languishing in negative territory, and the year-over-year average is teetering on the verge of decline as well. LEI currently shows just 0. (**********************************************************************************% growth over the past months.
according to Charlie Bilello, the CEO of Compound Capital Advisors, yearly LEI has flipped from positive to negative just five times over the past four decades.
On four of those occasions, the economy descended into a recession within the next calendar year. The only outlier was January 2019, when year-over-year LEI turned negative for just one month.
Still, year-over-year LEI hasn ‘ t turned negative yet. Assuming it does –
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