- indicator
- Used in the context of general equities. technical or fundamental measurement that securities analysts use to forecast the market's direction, such as investment advisory sentiment, volume of stock trading, direction of interest rates, and buying or selling by corporate insiders. Bloomberg Financial Dictionary
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a sign of the level of activity in the economy or in a particular company or financial market:• All the main indicators suggest that trade is improving.
indicator of• Orders for machine tools are considered an indicator of manufacturers' optimism.
— see also barometercoˌincident ˈindicator ECONOMICSone showing current economic activity, rather than what is going to happen:• The number of people registering at employment agencies is more of a coincident indicator.
ˌeconomic ˈindicator ECONOMICSa figure showing the performance of a particular part of the economy, for example employment, prices, production etc:• Economic indicators continue to show a stagnant economy.
one showing the state of a company's finances or of a financial market:• By almost any financial indicator their companies were leaders in their industries.
ˌkey ˈindicator ECONOMICSa very important one, giving information about the state of the economy as a whole:• Strong bank profits are key indicators of economic recovery.
ˌlagging ˈindicator ECONOMICSone that only follows what has happened earlier in the economy:• Employment is a lagging indicator of economic strength because many companies don't cut their work forces until they are certain that conditions require it.
ˌleading ˈindicator ECONOMICSone that gives early signs of what is going to happen in the economy later:• Corporate profits are considered a leading indicator, usually rising in advance of the economy.
ˈsentiment ˌindicator ECONOMICSone that gives information about how people feel about the state and the future of a financial market or of the economy:• ISI's bullish/bearish sentiment indicator was 5.98 last Wednesday.
ˈtechnical ˌindicator ECONOMICSone that shows the direction of a financial market:• The main technical indicator was gold's inability to rise above $375 earlier in the week.
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indicator UK US /ˈɪndɪkeɪtər/ noun [C]► ECONOMICS, FINANCE something that shows what a situation is like or how it is changing: indicator of sth »Rising orders are an indicator of the health of the manufacturing sector.
key/important/strong indicator »The banking sector is a key indicator of the state of the economy.
»a good/useful/reliable indicator
→ See also COINCIDENT INDICATOR(Cf. ↑coincident indicator), ECONOMIC INDICATOR(Cf. ↑economic indicator), FINANCIAL INDICATOR(Cf. ↑financial indicator), INDEX OF COINCIDENT INDICATORS(Cf. ↑index of coincident indicators), INDEX OF LEADING ECONOMIC INDICATORS(Cf. ↑index of leading economic indicators), KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATOR(Cf. ↑key performance indicator), LEADING INDICATOR(Cf. ↑leading indicator), MARKET INDICATOR(Cf. ↑market indicator), MYERS-BRIGGS TYPE INDICATOR™(Cf. ↑Myers-Briggs type indicator™), PERFORMANCE INDICATOR(Cf. ↑performance indicator), SENTIMENT INDICATOR(Cf. ↑sentiment indicator), TECHNICAL INDICATOR(Cf. ↑technical indicator)
Financial and business terms. 2012.
