Economic recovery dashboard- update

From Russell Investment:

click on figure to see interactive dashboard

Summary of current state(as of 5/31/2009)

Leading indicators — All leading indicators showed significant improvement over previous months, indicating higher confidence in equity and credit markets compared to the beginning of this year. TED spread narrowed significantly from 0.88% to 0.52%, while OAS and VIX continued to move closer to the typical range. Along with the increase in confidence, the US equity markets have shown an upward trend since March 9, 2009 (As measured by the S&P 500 Index).

Lagging indicators — Because these indicators tend to lag behind the leading indicators, most continue to show signs of weakness – although the pace of decline is slowing. GDP1 decreased for the 3rd straight quarter, NF PAY shows that the job market remains weak, and PCE – a measure of consumer spending – continues to drop. Additionally, the first quarter rate for Mortgage delinquencies increased to a new high of 7.83%.