Bank of America records better-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings; higher interest rates drive revenue up

According to the Men's underwear indicator index, there is a decline in men's underwear sales if the economy is suffering a slump and there is an upswing in sales when the economy improves. With this index, one might be able to detect the relative health of the economy.

The Lipstick indicator was a term coined by Leonard Lauder in 2001 recession, the then chairman of Estee Lauder Cos. During the autumn of that year, he noted that lipstick sales had risen. This indicated that women who were faced with an uncertain economic environment would often turn to beauty products as affordable treats. This has been making a resurgence even today, as many are now chasing the 'clean girl' aesthetic which requires a significant number of products.

This indicator essentially focuses on the number of people who attempt to get into relationships to overcome depression over a slump in the economy. There is a significant increase in traffic on online dating sites, especially during a recession. This was studied in the US, during the 2008 recession, when the online dating service Match.com reported that it saw a huge surge in traffic. The highest ever in over seven years.

The garbage indicator simply refers to the fact that when people have more money, they buy more, and in the end, they throw more. According to economists, this indicator has an 82% accuracy rate when studying US economic growth.

The R-Word index was created by The Economist and it works by keeping a count of how many times the word "Recession" appears in the news. The index proves that during an economic downturn there is a surge in the usage of the "scary word starting with R".

This index generally looks at whether shoppers are buying luxury or premium goods, indicating the market sentiment. It gets its name from the simple theory that when you're celebrating something, you pop open a bottle of champagne. So champagne sales are normally associated with rising income levels in the economy.

The hemline index suggests that the length of skirts tends to rise or fall along with stock prices. The most common version of the theory is that skirt lengths get shorter in good economic times and longer in bad, such as after the 1929 Wall Street Crash.

This is by far the most unusual index and it compares the numbers of just two categories, the first being the worldwide spending on fighter jets (guns) to what it spends on business jets (caviar). In simpler terms, it compares global military uncertainty with high-end wealth creation.