by Steve Goldstein
Market Watch
Key U.S. economic information may have been leaked ahead of its release, judging from the price moves in key equity and bond futures contracts, according to a study released Monday.
The European Central Bank published a working paper — which means it hasn’t been peer reviewed as yet — arguing that seven out of 21 market-moving announcements show evidence of “substantial informed trading” before the official release time.
The paper identified seven indicators that they said showed “strong” evidence of pre-announcement drift: The Conference Board’s consumer confidence index; the National Association of Realtors’ existing-home sales report and pending-home sales report; the Commerce Department’s preliminary GDP report; the Federal Reserve’s industrial production report; and the Institute for Supply Management’s manufacturing and nonmanufacturing index.