The Citi Economic Surprise indices have been useful indicators for finding short-term turning points in risk assets for many years. While not perfect, the mean-reverting nature is very instructive as to economist over- or under-optimism through the cycle. A recent SocGen strategy report noted that since the US rating downgrade, the majority of US macro data have beaten consensus - driving the surprise index up to cycle highs (from dramatically bad cycle lows). It appears that the US economic surprise indicator has peaked again and economists are currently upgrading their forecasts. We noted earlier [3], that markets are getting very sensitive to misses and this turn in 'economic data relative to over-optimistic forecasts' performance creates significant room for disappointment and implicitly, equity underperformance.
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