Mr. Greenspan's appearances on Capitol Hill are widely seen as a barometer of the strength of the economy.
The trade surplus, a barometer of export strength, is nearing $30 billion, and economic growth exceeded 8percentt in the first quarter.
The company, which has been widely viewed as a barometer of the strength or weakness of the Internet economy, finished regular trading at $35.75, up $1.19, on the Nasdaq market.
Comparable-store sales, Wall Street's best-known barometer of retail strength, typically grow at a sleepy 2% to 5% per quarter.
The Chinese purchasing managers' index makes particularly interesting reading in this context, given its close correlation with the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index, the barometer of U.S. corporate strength.
The development, which comprises two 60,000-square-foot office buildings and a 650-space parkingaragege, is seen by real estate professionals as a barometer of the continuing strength of Baltimore's real estate market because the site, long considered a vacant no man's land, is finally being developed.
So what happens to Mr Raymond's reputation in the years to come will be a barometer of the relative strengths of red-blooded capitalism and of the kinder, gentler, greener, more socially responsible and perhaps less profitable version.
Data may not be the most important barometer of the group's strength, however.
The Bellwether: Merrimack County Merrimack County, which is home to New Hampshire's capital, Concord, has been a close barometer of the Democrats' statewide strength since 2000, with Democratic support in the county consistently about 2 percentage points stronger than their statewide share of the vote.
And, as FiveThirtyEight recently noted, Virginia's off-year results "haven't been so predictive" as a barometer of each party's strength in the following midterm House races.
