CHART OF THE DAY: An Obscure Real Estate Indicator Is Looking Like A 'Huge Tailwind' For The Stock Market

This morning, the Architecture Billings Index jumped to 54.2 from last month's 51.2 reading, the fastest rate of growth in more than five years.

The index is a leading indicator for commercial real estate.

Dave Lutz, head of ETF trading and strategy at Stifel Nicolaus, sent along the chart below (the billings index in red versus the S&P 500 in blue), describing the surge in billings as a "huge tailwind" for the market.

The chart above suggests that billings can at times correlate with the market – but of course, that is not always the case.