the situations have changed so rapidly that our economic data at this stage is a complete unknown.

Payroll figures will likely be some of the most rapid data that we get, but hiring data, house sales, manufacturing, orders, all of these are going to be weeks or months after the fact and with the rapid changes that this volatile economy is going through, even that data will be of low quality.

They also pointed out that in a crisis like this, the people on the front lines of our economy who typically forward data will have other things to do or will be out of the office.

It's a mess!

0.7% the last 2 years. This is largely why 75% of economists last year predicted a recession by 2021. Most of those 2-2.5% in GDP growth the last couple years is just price growth (inflation). It's like running a company that has $100,000 in revenue and the next year you sell the same exact number of units, but increase prices so your revenue was $102,500, but your expenses also went up $2000. Would you say that company has good growth?

This is a shock to the system. We'll see massive job losses the next couple reports. We'll see negative growth the next GDP report. But it will take several months to be able to measure the full effects. Numbers across the board are going to look bad by the end of Summer.

My amateur MBA (Finance) very limited level of knowledge tells me a couple things. We were due for a pull back. Stocks have been overvalued for several years if you you Price Earnings ratio as a measure. Much of this reaction (over reaction) is because we have terrible and erratic leadership in the White House. The markets were looking for calm and consistent leadership to steady them, instead we got a total failure of leadership. The markets would be in much better shape right now had Trump stepped back and let Mike Pence deliver the speeches on this.

For investment purposes, I’d say more granular data on the economics don’t matter because your holding timeframe washes out any value of weekly or monthly data.

For trading purposes, it doesn’t matter because only price pays...meaning that whatever else is happening in the world, the only thing that matters is what can I buy it for and what can I sell it for.

These past 15 days has been that fastest sell off since 1929 and possibly ever by the time it’s over. That leads to thinking if only I had more data, I could have gotten out. Maybe. But what you have to consider is that having more data invites more decision making. And we know that for most people, more decision making leads to weaker investment outcomes. The theory is that our fight or flight reflexes are wired to make bad financial decisions.

In this case, imho, while more data could have gotten you out 10-12 days ago...it likely would have kept you in the sidelines for the last 2-3 years and you’d be right where you are now...but without the ride up n down.

As someone told me a long time ago...don’t trade your investments and don’t invest in your trade. Know the difference and never get em mixed up.

Good luck out the and let’s be careful out there.

the US and the world. I tend to think that most stock is either overvalued or undervalued. It is just too capricious. Real stuff like the 5 economic indicators in my OP are, in my opinion, much more important indicator of economic health. I cannot imagine what the lock down of Italy has done to the Italian economy, and don't make jokes about the Italians.