Economic Indicators Guide

ChartInspect carries 50+ economic and macro indicators. All of them are free, no Pro subscription required.

Why Macro Matters for Crypto

• Interest rates: higher rates generally reduce risk appetite
• Inflation: the Bitcoin-as-a-hedge argument lives or dies here
• Liquidity (M2, Fed balance sheet): affects every asset class
• Employment: the health signal the Fed reacts to
• Dollar strength (DXY): usually inversely correlated with crypto

Key Indicators

Rates and Monetary Policy

• Federal Funds Rate: the benchmark policy rate
• 3-Month, 2-Year, 10-Year and 30-Year Treasury Rates
• 10Y-2Y Treasury Spread and 10Y-3M Yield Spread: the classic recession signals
• 10-Year Real Yield (TIPS)

Fed Liquidity

• Fed Net Liquidity: the most-watched macro-liquidity proxy
• Fed Balance Sheet
• Reverse Repo (RRP)
• Treasury General Account (TGA)

Money Supply

• M2 Velocity, M2 Growth vs Bitcoin, M2 Liquidity Regime
• Global M2 Liquidity Lead, which plots Bitcoin against global M2 shifted forward 10 weeks

Inflation

• Inflation Analysis: headline CPI (the chart is titled Inflation Analysis, not CPI)
• Core CPI: excluding food and energy
• PCE Price Index and Core PCE Price Index: the Fed's preferred measures
• Producer Price Index (PPI)
• Breakeven Inflation: 10-Year, 5-Year, and 5Y5Y Forward

Employment

• Nonfarm Payrolls, Unemployment Rate, Initial Claims
• Labor Force Participation Rate, Employment-Population Ratio
• Average Hourly Earnings, the wage-inflation series the Fed watches

Growth and Activity

• GDP Growth (a growth rate, not an output level)
• Industrial Production Index, Capacity Utilization, Consumer Sentiment

Credit and Conditions

• High-Yield Credit Spread, Investment-Grade Credit Spread
• Financial Conditions (NFCI)

Recession Composites

• Recession Risk Index, Sahm Rule Recession Indicator
• Economic Health Index, Market vs Labor Stress

Housing

• Housing Starts, 30-Year Fixed Mortgage Rate

Markets

• DXY, VIX
• NASDAQ Composite, Dow Jones, Russell 2000, Nikkei 225, DAX, FTSE 100
• USD/JPY, USD/EUR, Copper

Two Controls Worth Knowing

The Economic Indicator dropdown. Every economic chart carries a dropdown with around 100 selectable series. That is how you reach series with no chart of their own, including M2 Money Supply, Monetary Base, the S&P 500, gold, silver, platinum, copper and additional FX pairs. There is no standalone M2 or S&P 500 chart page; open any economic chart and switch the series.

The overlay control. Every economic chart can plot the indicator against a second asset on its own axis: Bitcoin, the S&P 500, NASDAQ, gold, VIX, Treasuries or MSTR. This is the fastest way to eyeball a relationship.

Economic charts also draw NBER recession shading automatically, so you do not need to add it.

Correlation Charts

• Economic Indicators vs Crypto Correlation: rolling correlation between crypto and DXY, Fed Funds, Treasury yields, real rates or the yield curve, selectable inside the chart
• Global M2 vs Crypto Correlation: rolling correlation against M2 liquidity, using a global aggregate (US, Eurozone, China, Japan, UK) or any single country

Data and Refresh

Sources are FRED for the US macro series and Yahoo Finance for indices, commodities, FX and rates. ChartInspect re-pulls every economic indicator every 3 hours, so a new release appears within about three hours of publication.

Upstream sources publish on their own schedule: daily for Treasury rates and DXY, weekly for initial claims, monthly for CPI, employment and housing, quarterly for GDP.

Note that ChartInspect charts the actual released values. We do not carry consensus forecasts or surprise indices, so compare a print against expectations using an external calendar.

Upcoming Releases

The chart page's right sidebar has an Upcoming Events panel listing upcoming economic releases, FOMC meetings and the Bitcoin halving. It is dismissible, so if you have hidden it you will need to restore that section. You can also ask Inspect AI about the economic calendar.

Alerts and API

Most economic indicators support alerts, so you can be notified when the unemployment rate or the fed funds rate crosses a level (alerts require Pro).

Economic data is also available through the free public API tier at /api/v1/economic, no Pro subscription needed. See the API docs.

Tips

1. Trends beat single prints
2. Use the overlay control rather than eyeballing two separate charts
3. Watch liquidity (Fed Net Liquidity, global M2) as closely as rates
4. Economic indicators are lagging, they confirm rather than predict
5. Pair macro with on-chain data for a fuller picture