Dow Jones Economic Sentiment Indicator jumps 2.2 to 46.1 in December

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Dow Jones Economic Sentiment Indicator jumps 2.2 to 46.1 in December

2011-01-04 07:33:10 GMT+7 (ICT)

NEW YORK (BNO NEWS) -- Dow Jones & Company on Monday announced that its Economic Sentiment Indicator (ESI) jumped 2.2 points to 46.1 in December, indicating good momentum for the new year.

The ESI is determined by in-depth analysis of national news coverage across 15 daily newspapers, and it held steady at 43.9 in October and November.

Upbeat coverage about the holiday shopping season contributed to the rise, but much of the improvement was driven by a wide range of positive economic news across the nation.

There was a positive feel to coverage of real estate, including coverage of brisk sales of mansions over $3 million in Westchester, New York; pockets of recovery in Bay Area commercial real-estate; and buyer interest in the Telecom Corridor, a business park in northern Dallas.

However there was also plenty of other positive news outside real estate, such as a pickup of port throughput at Los Angeles/Long Beach, the nation's busiest port complex and busy sales at car dealerships across the U.S.

Positive media coverage on the return of $3 per gallon gas helped push up the indicator as well, with most reports portraying the rise as a sign of returning economic activity.

"Improved sentiment about the U.S. economy is pointing to a solid, even if unspectacular, recovery in growth, including an upswing in job creation," said Dow Jones Newswires "Money Talks" columnist Alen Mattich.

But Mattich also noted that "a significant price increase could reverse this positive effect as it would eat into households' disposable income."

The Dow Jones Economic Sentiment Indicator aims to predict the health of the U.S. economy by analyzing the coverage of 15 major daily newspapers in the U.S. Using a proprietary algorithm and derived data technology, the ESI examines every article in each of the newspapers for positive and negative sentiment about the economy.

The indicator is calculated through Dow Jones Insight, a media tracking and analysis tool. The technology used for the ESI also powers Dow Jones Lexicon, a proprietary dictionary that allows traders and analysts to determine sentiment, frequency and other relevant complex patterns within news to develop predictive trading strategies.

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