As an investor it is important to understand how economic indicators can impact financial markets, investing and ultimately the value of your investments.

The key to your success will be looking at these economic indicators, extracting what you need to make the right investment decisions.

Economic Indicators are key statistics that show where the economy is headed by monitoring inflation.

The holidays have come and gone, and earnings season is once again upon us. Here are four things that The Finance Professor will be focusing on as companies report their fourth-quarter earnings over the course of the next few weeks.

1. Revenue Growth

2009 was marked by net income stabilization and moderate growth, a feat achieved primarily through cost reduction. Top-line revenue growth, however, was stunted due to poor comparisons with the prior year and a strengthening U.S. dollar. If we are truly going to experience an economic rebound, earnings growth is going to have to be sourced from top-line revenue growth.

Tiffany & Co. reported a larger-than-expected quarterly profit and raised its forecast for full-year earnings on the strength of its overseas sales and a solid start to the holiday season, sending the upscale jeweler’s shares up nearly 6 percent.

The company’s [TIF 43.21 -0.68 (-1.55%) ] sales showed double-digit growth in Asia and a slower rate of decline for the United States.

Let’s recap what we’ve learned in the last 8 Post here at ChartPoppers.com:

* Stock means ownership. As an owner, you have a claim on the assets and earnings of a company as well as voting rights with your shares.

Stock prices change every day as a result of market forces. By this we mean that share prices change because of supply and demand. If more people want to buy a stock (demand) than sell it (supply), then the price moves up. Conversely, if more people wanted to sell a stock than buy it, there would be greater supply than demand, and the price would fall.

Understanding supply and demand is easy. What is difficult to comprehend is what makes people like a particular stock and dislike another stock. This comes down to figuring out what news is positive for a company and what news is negative. There are many answers to this problem and just about any investor you ask has their own ideas and strategies.