AAII's Guide to Top Web Sites
| Economic Data |
| Access to economic data and analyses can be especially useful to individual investors who want to assess the economic climate on their own. The list below includes government as well as private sites, most of which provide both data and analyses; some even allow users to download economic statistics. |
 Econoday |
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www.econoday.com
FREE
Where to Find:
Click on View Full Calendar.
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A calendar listing all upcoming economic reports is provided. Consensus forecasts are listed for the major upcoming releases. Charts of past data for certain indicators and a thorough description of what the report measures are provided. A special "Why Investors Care" section for major releases explains how the report may impact market direction. A full-year release schedule for the data is published. Free weekly emails covering U.S. and global economic data are available.
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| EconStats |
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www.econstats.com
FREE |
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A wide array of economic data includes U.S. indicators, interest rates (U.S. and LIBOR), oil inventories, global equity returns and select international reports. Data is presented in large tables, which are functional but not visually appealing. The statistics can be downloaded into Microsoft Excel for further analysis. This is a good site for raw data, but not for finding actual analysis.
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| Federal Reserve |
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www.federalreserve.gov
FREE |
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The Federal Reserve provides a compilation of speeches and testimony from Fed officials, both in written and video format. Policy statements and press releases for certain economic data are published, including the statement and minutes from the periodic Federal Open Market Committee meetings. The About the Fed section includes links to the websites of the 12 Federal Reserve district banks, each of which provides their own collections of data, articles and analyses.
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| FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data) |
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research.stlouisfed.org
FREE
Where to Find:
Click on FRED Economic Data.
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A comprehensive database featuring more than 20,000 economic time series. Data is presented in a chart, and links are provided to view or download the actual economic data. Navigation is straightforward with broad categories and subindexes of specific data sets. Narrative is limited to working papers and regional publications from the St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank. A FRED iPad app is now available.
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