Early access to non-governmental economic reports, such as the University of Michigan’s report on consumer confidence, is routinely sold to traders, the Wall Street Journal website reported yesterday.
The article noted that such sales are legal, as is trading on the information. In the instance of the consumer-sentiment report, Thomson-Reuters sold the early look to Infinium Capital Management, a high-speed trading firm, the article said.
It added that other reports released early included a Chicago-based barometer of business activity and a widely followed manufacturing index from the Institute for Supply Management.
The report said that trade associations and private research firms also sell data that move industry-specific stocks and futures markets.