National Federation of Independent Business

Small Businesses Love Trump

The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) Research Foundation has been conducting surveys on small business economic trends since 1973. One of the primary indicators that the organization tracks is the Index of Small Business Optimism. This index gives investors and economy observes insights into the current state of small businesses. This is especially important in the U.S. as small businesses employee 90% of the workforce and account for close to 50% of nonfarm GDP.

Submitted by Erico Matias Tavares via Sinclair & Co.,

The weekly rail traffic report published by the Association of American Railroads (“AAR”) provides a great snapshot of US economic activity almost in real (weekly) time.

Last July we noted that we were starting to witness some signals of a trend change, now suggesting a softening. But much has happened since then, including a broadly unexpected change in the political direction of the US. Have those signals been reversed as a result?

As The National Federation of Independent Business explains, the Small Business Economic Trends report shows that in March, small business owners felt less optimistic about the economy. The index declined by 0.3 points to 92.6, its lowest monthly reading in two years.

Submitted by Lance Roberts via RealInvestmentAdvice.com,

The Fed’s Got A Problem

The most recent employment report sent the financial market pundits abuzz claiming that the economy was on solid footing with no recession in sight. The problem, for anyone willing to actually look at the data, was the underlying data was mostly disappointing.