• Home
  • Latest
  • Fortune 500
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia

Trendingnow

1

Egg companies made $1.22 billion in profit off a $6 carton — now they’re buying their way out of a price-fixing case with 53 million donated eggs

2

Meet the Zillennials: The luckiest micro-generation in the workforce, born between 1993 and 1998

3

Economists have found an answer to slowing cognitive decline: Avoid retiring early, study finds

1

Egg companies made $1.22 billion in profit off a $6 carton — now they’re buying their way out of a price-fixing case with 53 million donated eggs

2

Meet the Zillennials: The luckiest micro-generation in the workforce, born between 1993 and 1998

3

Economists have found an answer to slowing cognitive decline: Avoid retiring early, study finds
FinanceQuarterly Investment Guide

The health of the economy in nine charts

By
Lance Lambert
Lance Lambert
Former Real Estate Editor
Down Arrow Button Icon
By
Lance Lambert
Lance Lambert
Former Real Estate Editor
Down Arrow Button Icon
January 27, 2020, 8:20 AM ET
Add Fortune on Google for similar content.

This article is part of Fortune‘s quarterly investment guide for Q1 2020.

We are living in the longest economic expansion in American history. When the last recession hit in December 2007, most of us still had flip phones and hadn’t yet created a social media presence. And many younger workers today have no clue what a downturn looks like. Case in point: Justin Bieber was 15 when the Great Recession ended in the summer of 2009.

But the hard truth is the good times are going to end—the only question is, When?

Some economic signals are already flashing yellow or even red. In August the U.S. yield curve temporarily inverted—long seen as a recession precursor. And in the final months of 2019, the U.S. manufacturing sector started to contract. Then again, the economy is still hitting some high notes, like rising building permits and a strong holiday shopping season.

To get an indication of where the economy is headed in the early months of 2020, Fortune pulled nine top economic indicators. We looked at both leading economic indicators like new building permits and the purchasing manager index, along with core economic stats like GDP and the unemployment rate. Taken together they can give investors a sense of where things are today—and where they might be headed.

The charts are shaded between December 2007 and June 2009, when the U.S. economy was last in recession.

The U.S. economy grew at 2.1% in the third quarter of 2019. That’s neither robust nor weak. It’s a steady uptick that is similar to what we’ve seen in most quarters during this record long expansion.

But the latest GDP numbers also show some weakness, including declines in exports and private investment. But those drops are offset by consumer spending, which continues to push the economy forward.

The unemployment rate is well below the 5% rate that many economists recently considered full employment in the U.S. That’s helping Americans secure bigger paychecks.

Economists consider the jobless rate a strong lagging indicator, meaning it’s an excellent snapshot of what is happening now, but it doesn’t really tell us what is coming next.

The yield curve inverted in August 2019 when long-term rates were temporarily lower than short-term rates. That’s important because it signifies that long-term outlook is poor, and usually this precedes a recession. The good news is that long-term Treasury rates have since improved relative to short-term rates.

In December, American manufacturing posted its worst month since the Great Recession. Whenever PMI drops under 50, it signifies a contraction in the sector. We’re currently at five straight months with the index under 50.

“The headline numbers are bad. This is the weakest it has been in 10 years,” says Tim Fiore, the chair of Institute of Supply Management’s Manufacturing PMI Business Survey Committee. This is a moderate contraction, he says, and is the result of the U.S.–China trade war.

When businesses start pushing back business orders or canceling them, it can forewarn of troubling economic times ahead. In the latter half of last year, firms did just that. However, “the US economy is expected to continue to expand over the next three to six months with growth accelerating modestly, based on insights from the Coupa BSI,” says Jeff Collins, lead economist at Coupa. “Planned business spend appears to be rebounding as trade concerns wane and Fed interest rate cuts propel the longest expansion in U.S. history.”

Consumers are the backbone of the economy. As exports and business investment fall, consumer spending is what’s keeping GDP figures moving upward. So it’s good to hear that consumers are still confident.

“Consumers continue to support economic growth, but on the other hand we don’t expect significant growth in consumer spending or the economy as a whole,” says Lynn Franco, senior director of economic indicators and surveys at the Conference Board.

When the Shiller P/E Ratio gets high, it points to an overvalued stock market. The price-to-earnings ratio is above its pre-recession peak. However, it’s still below levels it hit before the dotcom bubble popped. Then again, it is higher now than it was leading up to Black Tuesday in 1929.

If we enter a recession in 2020, it’s unlikely it will come from the housing sector. Home price growth is moderate compared with insanely high bubble days, and homebuilding is steadily growing. And the recent uptick in permits suggest this will be a solid year for construction.

Americans are buying fewer cars. That’s bad news for firms like Ford and General Motors, and for U.S. auto plants and suppliers that are the backbone for huge swaths of the Midwest and South.

Now let’s look at our scorecard and see how these nine economic indicators are flashing. Cheat sheet: Green = signaling growth, yellow = steady, and red = forewarning trouble.

  • Green: Two metrics (unemployment rate and building permits)
  • Yellow: Five metrics (GDP growth, the yield curve, consumer confidence, stock price to earnings, and vehicle sales)
  • Red: Two metrics (manufacturing purchasing managers index and business spend index)

The trajectory of the economy in early 2020 is pointing to neither a boom or a bust, but instead it looks like we’ll get more of the same: modest economic growth. Which, considering this bull market has run for more than a decade, is not a bad place to be.

More from Fortune’s investment guide:

—Start a donor advised fund for your charitable giving
—Goldman Sachs Asset Management’s Sheila Patel on her 2020 outlook
—5 pressing questions to hone your investment strategy this quarter
—Investors are uneasy over the surge of near-junk corporate bonds
—Chasing returns: 12 lessons for real estate investors
—10 stocks that are poised for a stellar 2020

Subscribe to Fortune’s Bull Sheet newsletter for no-nonsense finance news and analysis daily.

About the Author
By Lance LambertFormer Real Estate Editor
Twitter icon

Lance Lambert is a former Fortune editor who contributes to the Fortune Analytics newsletter.

See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon
Add Fortune on Google for similar content.

Latest in Finance

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025

Most Popular

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Fortune Secondary Logo
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • World's Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
  • Lists Calendar
Sections
  • Finance
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Features
  • Leadership
  • Health
  • Commentary
  • Success
  • Retail
  • Mpw
  • Tech
  • Lifestyle
  • CEO Initiative
  • Asia
  • Politics
  • Conferences
  • Europe
  • Newsletters
  • Personal Finance
  • Environment
  • Magazine
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
  • Group Subscriptions
About Us
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • Facebook icon
  • Twitter icon
  • LinkedIn icon
  • Instagram icon
  • Pinterest icon

Latest in Finance

Chad Hurley and Steven Chen wearing suits
SuccessWealth
YouTube’s founders split over $650 million when they sold to Google in 2006—had they held out, they could have taken a slice of $550 billion
By Preston ForeJuly 3, 2026
15 hours ago
Photo: Paris, france
Environmentclimate change
Brutal heatwave in France is killing 2,000 people per week, undertakers are overwhelmed, and health agency says there’s worse to come
By John Leicester and The Associated PressJuly 3, 2026
15 hours ago
Photo: World Cup fans drinking.
EconomyEconomics
On Wall Street, analysts increasingly don’t believe the U.S. government’s ‘misleading’ job numbers
By Jim EdwardsJuly 3, 2026
18 hours ago
U.S. President Donald Trump talks to reporters after signing an executive order dealing with automobile repairs with Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin in the Oval Office at the White House on June 29, 2026 in Washington, DC.
EconomyFed
Trump is already causing a headache for his new Fed chairman, saying the central bank’s board is ‘hostile’ and ‘doing the wrong thing’
By Eleanor PringleJuly 3, 2026
19 hours ago
A $75 billion valuation, 75 million global customers and on its way to America—Revolut is London’s disruptor extraordinaire
EuropeLetter from London
A $75 billion valuation, 75 million global customers and on its way to America—Revolut is London’s disruptor extraordinaire
By Kamal AhmedJuly 3, 2026
19 hours ago
Man in a black hat and jacket
InvestingSpace Exploration
Elon Musk can’t sell a single SpaceX share for a year—and then all the locks crack open at once
By Amanda GerutJuly 3, 2026
19 hours ago

Most Popular

Egg companies made $1.22 billion in profit off a $6 carton — now they’re buying their way out of a price-fixing case with 53 million donated eggs
Law
Egg companies made $1.22 billion in profit off a $6 carton — now they’re buying their way out of a price-fixing case with 53 million donated eggs
By Wyatte Grantham-Philips and The Associated PressJuly 2, 2026
1 day ago
Meet the Zillennials: The luckiest micro-generation in the workforce, born between 1993 and 1998
AI
Meet the Zillennials: The luckiest micro-generation in the workforce, born between 1993 and 1998
By Nick LichtenbergJuly 3, 2026
22 hours ago
Economists have found an answer to slowing cognitive decline: Avoid retiring early, study finds
Economy
Economists have found an answer to slowing cognitive decline: Avoid retiring early, study finds
By Sasha RogelbergJuly 2, 2026
2 days ago
On Wall Street, analysts increasingly don’t believe the U.S. government’s 'misleading' job numbers
Economy
On Wall Street, analysts increasingly don’t believe the U.S. government’s 'misleading' job numbers
By Jim EdwardsJuly 3, 2026
18 hours ago
$25 billion CEO says one-hour interviews are a waste of time—he puts candidates through six hours of tests and wants them to order wine at lunch
Success
$25 billion CEO says one-hour interviews are a waste of time—he puts candidates through six hours of tests and wants them to order wine at lunch
By Orianna Rosa RoyleJuly 3, 2026
22 hours ago
Current price of oil as of July 2, 2026
Personal Finance
Current price of oil as of July 2, 2026
By Joseph HostetlerJuly 2, 2026
2 days ago

© 2026 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.