Macroeconomic indicators are groupings of data that measure the health of the economy. Top-tier indicators include the labor report, Gross Domestic Product, Consumer Price Index and Producer Price Index, Pending Home Sales, and weekly Department of Energy inventories. Second-tier indicators include weekly Jobless Claims, Consumer Sentiment, Motor Vehicle Sales, ISM Mfg Index, ICSC Chain Store Sales, Business Inventories, Wholesale Trade, Budget Deficit, Factory Orders, and regional Federal Reserve indexes. Other indicators include the weekly Money Supply report, MBA Purchase Applications, Consumer Credit, Import and Export Prices, the Conference Board's Leading Economic Indicators, and Farm Prices.

Indicators are useful tools to gage prior economic activity as well as a means to forecast future contraction or expansion. Economists use indicators to measure global and domestic activity while traders interpret indicators in terms of top-down or bottom-up analysis and the impact on stock prices.