Indeed, this process is what makes the venue for today's discussion - the New York Stock Exchange, home of the world's deepest equities market - so appropriate. The NYSE provides a platform for real-time, information-rich assessments of leading global companies, incorporating both an evaluation of the overall economic outlook and firm-specific considerations. It is also fitting to be speaking today before members of the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, who trade in these markets daily.
The Federal Reserve, too, relies on multiple sources of data to help achieve our dual mandate: ensuring price stability and achieving maximum employment. Some of the data upon which we draw - statistical indicators of activity and prices in the real economy - tend to be backward-looking and subject to considerable revision. Other information we use is drawn from financial market prices; although subject to rapid change and "noisy" market signals, this information can be considerably more timely and forward looking.