What is it: Monthly trade data from South Korea.

What makes it hipster: Economists call this indicator the  "global canary in the coal mine" as it is the first major economic report to come out on the first of the month. South Korea's exports are heavily tied to China, Japan, and Europe.

What is it: Monthly measure of  truck tonnage from the American Trucking Association. 

What makes it hipster: Trucks remain the principal method for transporting most consumer goods. Over 80% of all commercial shipping is done on trucks. So, if stuff is flying off the shelves, this number can help let us know.

What is it: Owned by farmers, Fonterra controls nearly one third of the world's dairy exports. Dairy generates more than 7 percent of New Zealand's gross domestic product.

What makes it hipster: Dairy consumption can be a good proxy for a country's development: coffee cream, processed cheese, cereal toppings and even pet food are all trappings of the middle class.

What is it: Shipping data from Egypt's Suez Canal Authority.

What makes it hipster: We are so over the Baltic Dry Index. Instead, we think traffic through the Suez — one of the world's most important chokepoints for transferring goods — can tell us a lot more about the state of global shipping, and by proxy the state of global consumption demand. 

What is it: Daily price movements for the cooking product, derived from the oil palm.

What makes it hipster: Palm oil is a common cooking ingredient in the developing world. So if prices are up, tropical Africa, southeast Asia and Brazil are in good shape. If prices are down, growth is slowing...

What is it: Gross monthly gaming revenue from the world's hottest gambling locale. 

What makes it hipster: Chinese GDP is one thing, but you'll know for sure if a slowdown is imminent when mainland business titans stop jetting off to Macau for the weekend.

What is it: Postal carrier data from the worldwide leader.

What makes it hipster: A lot of U.S. exports end up being delivered to our neighbor to the north. This helps filter Canada out, thus capturing the cross section of U.S. output and overseas demand.

What is it: The grocery component of the government's retail sales data.

What makes it hipster: Food inflation can be noisy; this index can better reflect elasticity of demand in U.S. supermarkets.

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