Earlier this week the Chicago Fed National Activity Index (CFNAI) reported that November economic activity in the U.S. improved sharply. The CFNAI is a weighted average of 85 existing monthly indicators drawn from four major areas: production and income; employment, unemployment, and hours; personal consumption and housing; and sales, orders, and inventories.
You can read more about this index at the Chicago Fed website.
The significance of this information seems to have hit the stock market as small cap stocks and real estate stocks are taking off. I’m not sure what the future holds, but the general mood of investors is so much better now compared to a year ago that it’s amazing.