What are the best market indicators?

Jan 14th 2012 | from the print edition The Economist's Big Mac index is based on the theory of purchasing-power parity: that, in the long run, exchange rates should adjust to equal the price of a basket of goods and services in different countries.

Is This The Best Stock Market Indicator Ever? As we all know, the key to successful investing is very simple: However, you enter a chaotic, fun-house world of uncertainty once you ponder the logical follow-up question: Investors desperate to solve this riddle have come up with solutions as varied as Fibonacci Analysis or the length of women's hemlines.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 23 Keywords: skyscraper height, business cycle, Granger causality, cointegration Barr, Jason, Mizrach, Bruce and Mundra, Kusum, Skyscraper Height and the Business Cycle: International Time Series Evidence (December 8, 2011). Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1970059 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1970059

Segment totals, ranked by Jan unit sales Top 20 vehicles, current month's sales -- per the Wall Street Journal

as per the Redbook Research, Inc. data in the WSJ

per the WSJ

Per the National Association of Realtors at REALTOR.org

Pending home sales via the National Association of Realtors (REALTOR.org)

Index performance for Ted Spread (.TEDSP) including value, chart, profile & other market data.

3 month LIBOR rates - 3 month T-bill rates = TED Spread

Historical Billings from 1976 to present. Represents 3-month moving average dollar amounts of shipments.
From the Semiconductor Industry Association
If it's >1, positive as orders are greater than industry is able to fulfill