Dow Jones Economic Sentiment Indicator

In April of this year, Dow Jones introduced the Dow Jones Economic Sentiment Indicator, which "aims to gauge the health of the U.S. economy by weighing the balance of sentiment in articles published by 15 major American newspapers." The indicator analyzes the occurrences of words in those media using a mathematical algorithm. Dow Jones calculated the indicator back to the 1990s and publishes the most current monthly figure on the last business day of each month. According to Dow Jones:

"The ESI represents one of the most comprehensive and far-reaching examinations of media coverage as an economic indicator. The ESI’s back-testing to 1990 shows that the ESI clearly highlighted the risk that the U.S. economy was sliding into recession in 2001 and 2008 and suggests the indicator can help predict economic turning points as much as seven months in advance of other indicators."

The website for the Dow Jones Economic Sentiment Indicator also includes recent press releases and comparisons to other economic indicators, such as the consumer confidence index from The Conference Board.