Country card (Econ / News)
/monitorWhat it answers
A country's live diagnosis straight from the map: its benchmark macro readings (Econ mode) or its latest headlines (News mode). Hover opens, click locks, and a second hover opens a second card to compare two countries side by side.
When to open it
- At the open: sweep the map with the cursor to see where the numbers are waking up (inflation turning back up, a policy rate moving, unemployment drifting) without leaving for Macro.
- To compare two countries on the same domain: click the first to lock it, hover the second — both cards stack in the top-right corner.
- In News mode: check that a region lighting up on the NEWS layer actually carries headlines worth reading, without leaving the map.
Anatomy
The Econ / News toggle sits in the center of the top bar. Cards appear in the top-right corner (and slide left of the side panel when one is open).
Econ mode. Two sub-modes, via the Overview and Domain tabs in the filter panel at bottom left.
- Overview always shows the same six indicators, in this order: GDP Growth, Interest Rate, Inflation, Unemployment, Debt/GDP, Current Acct. Comparable from one country to the next. Each row carries a coloured rail on its left, the header a verdict pill.
- Domain shows every indicator available in the chosen domain (dropdown below the tabs): Inflation, Growth, Labor, Interest, PMI, Sentiment, Housing, Trade, Fiscal, External.
A date picker in the same panel steps back in time: the cards then show the latest readings available before that date.
News mode. No sub-modes here: the card lists the country's headlines over the active time window of the NEWS layer. That layer has to be on for the cards to show at all.
How to read it
The dual card (both modes)
| Gesture | Effect |
|---|---|
| Hover a country | Opens its card in the top-right corner. The card vanishes as soon as you leave the country. |
| Click a country | Locks the card — it stays on screen once the cursor moves away. The country is highlighted on the map. |
| Click the same country again | Releases the lock; the card goes back to being a plain hover. |
| Hover another country while one is locked | Opens a second card below the first. Two countries compared without letting go of the cursor. |
| Click empty space or Esc | Releases every lock. |
Lock and cards are independent of the mode — switching from Econ to News changes what the card holds, not which country is locked.
Econ mode · Overview tab
A card with six fixed rows, whatever the country:
| Label (verbatim) | How to read it |
|---|---|
| GDP Growth | GDP growth over the reference period (quarter, year). Unit shown on the right (%). |
| Interest Rate | The central bank's policy rate, as of its latest decision. |
| Inflation | Year-on-year inflation, for the reference month. |
| Unemployment | Unemployment rate, for the reference month. |
| Debt/GDP | Public debt as a share of GDP, for the reference year (% GDP). |
| Current Acct | Current account balance, in % GDP. |
A row with no data shows a dash —. The period covered appears on the
right: 07/2026 for a monthly print, 2026 for an annual one, 29/04/2026
when the reading pins to a single day. That's the period of the last
published print, not the date of the snapshot. When a print falls behind its
own publication rhythm the period turns amber — the number itself stays on
screen.
Econ mode · the verdicts
Every row carries a coloured rail on its left, the header a pill. One scale, seven steps:
| Pill | How to read it |
|---|---|
| Robust | Clearly favourable. |
| Sound | Favourable. |
| Steady | Fine, unremarkable. |
| Mixed | No clear signal. The neutral step is quiet by design. |
| Strained | Unfavourable. |
| Unsound | Clearly unfavourable. |
| Critical | An extreme reading, worth examining. |
| Thin data | Too little is live to call the country. Rows that do carry a number keep their colour. |
Green above zero, red below — the same code as everywhere else in the app.
The rail doesn't judge the number on its own: it reads it alongside the other five on the card. Frankfurt sets one policy rate for the whole euro area; on the card it reads one way in the Netherlands and another in Greece.
The pill sums up the six rows. One row in trouble drags it down even when the other five read well. Dashed outline: the verdict leans mostly on annual figures. Hover: the verdict and how much of the card is live.
Econ mode · Domain tab
A card whose row count varies by country and by domain, because every country publishes a different subset of the domain's indicators.
| Domain | Typical indicators |
|---|---|
| Inflation | Inflation Rate YoY · Core Inflation Rate YoY · CPI · PPI YoY · PCE Price Index · Tokyo Core CPI YoY · RBA Trimmed Mean CPI |
| Growth | GDP Growth Rate QoQ · GDP Growth Rate YoY · Retail Sales MoM · Industrial Production · Durable Goods Orders · Factory Orders · Vehicle Sales |
| Labor | Non Farm Payrolls · Unemployment Rate · Initial Jobless Claims · Average Hourly Earnings · JOLTs Job Openings · ADP Employment Change · Participation Rate |
| Interest | Interest Rate Decision · FOMC Minutes |
| PMI | Manufacturing PMI · Services PMI · Composite PMI · ISM Manufacturing PMI · ISM Non-Manufacturing PMI · Caixin Manufacturing PMI · NBS Manufacturing PMI |
| Sentiment | Consumer Confidence · CB Consumer Confidence · Ifo Business Climate · ZEW Economic Sentiment · Michigan Inflation Expectations · Tankan Large Manufacturers Index |
| Housing | Building Permits · Housing Starts · New Home Sales · Existing Home Sales · House Price Index · Mortgage Approvals |
| Trade | Balance of Trade · Exports · Imports · Current Account |
| Fiscal | Government Budget |
| External | Foreign Exchange Reserves · Crude Oil Inventories · Foreign Investment |
Each row: the indicator's exact label, value + unit, reference period in parentheses. How many rows you get depends on what the country actually publishes — a large developed economy may show ten rows under Labor, a small one three.
The Econ card header
| Element | How to read it |
|---|---|
| Flag + country name | Which country you're on. The name follows the interface language. |
as of YYYY-MM-DD | Appears on the right in Domain mode, and only when the date picker sits before today. Overview never shows it (its data is always the most recent known per country / indicator). |
| Verdict pill | Overview only, on the right. See the verdicts above. |
Clicking the card opens Macro in a new tab.
The filter panel (bottom left)
| Element | How to read it |
|---|---|
| Overview / Domain tabs | Switch between the two Econ sub-modes. Persistent. |
| Domain dropdown | Visible in Domain mode only. Ten values: Inflation, Growth, Labor, Interest, PMI, Sentiment, Housing, Trade, Fiscal, External. Default: Inflation. |
| date field | Date picker. Every card then shows the latest readings before that date. Hit Go to apply a change. |
| Reset | Restores the defaults (Inflation, today's date). |
Loading… | The domain's data is on its way in (reloaded on every domain or date change). |
News mode
With the NEWS layer on, hovering or clicking a country shows:
| Element | How to read it |
|---|---|
| Flag + country name | On the left. On the right: N article(s) — the country's total for the window. |
| Headline list | Up to five, ranked by importance then recency. Each row: importance dot (CRITICAL · HIGH · MEDIUM · LOW · INFO), title (clamped to two lines), source, relative timestamp (Just now, Nm ago, Nh ago). |
+N more | When headlines remain beyond the five on screen. |
Clicking the card opens News in a new tab.
How the card resolves
Econ / News toggle in the top bar
├─ Econ ─ Overview tab ─→ six fixed indicators (GDP Growth, Interest Rate, Inflation,
│ Unemployment, Debt/GDP, Current Acct)
│ refreshed on every change of date in the picker
│
├─ Econ ─ Domain tab ─→ the chosen domain's indicators (up to 15 per country,
│ depending on availability)
│ reloaded on every domain or date change
│
└─ News ─→ the country's headlines over the NEWS layer's time window
(1H / 6H / 12H / 24H, set in the NEWS filter)
Controls
| Gesture | Effect |
|---|---|
| Hover a country | Opens the card for the country under the cursor. |
| Click a country | Locks that country's card. Clicking it again releases the lock. |
| Hover another country while a lock is active | Opens a second card below the first, for direct comparison. |
| Econ / News toggle in the top bar | Changes what the cards hold without breaking the lock. |
| Overview / Domain tabs in the filter panel | Switch between the two Econ sub-modes. |
| Domain dropdown | Changes the domain shown in Domain mode. |
| date field + Go button | Steps back in time; the cards show the latest readings before that date. |
| Reset | Restores the Inflation domain and today's date. |
| Esc or a click on empty space | Releases the lock and closes the cards. |
| Click on the card itself | Opens Macro (in Econ) or News (in News) in a new tab. |
Cross-check with other Hawkline features
- A number standing out on the Econ card: Macro carries the country's full calendar — calendar surprises, historical FX reactions, upcoming prints.
- A dense News card on one country: News opens the full stream, with the source mix and a drawer per cluster.
- Two cards side by side to compare two countries: the gap in policy rates or in inflation often feeds a direct FX read — FX for the matching pair.
Keep in mind
- Overview mode, six fixed rows. A country may publish neither Debt/GDP nor Current Acct — the row stays, the number is a dash. A dash does mean the data is absent: nothing published, or a discontinued series. A reading that is merely old still shows; it's the period, in amber, that flags the lag.
- Domain mode, variable content. Countries don't publish the same things. Inflation shows fewer rows for Brazil than for the United States; Housing is rich in the US and bare elsewhere. When a country goes past the cursor without producing a card at all, it has no indicator in the chosen domain for the requested date.
- Only Overview is coloured. The Domain tab shows readings, no verdict.
- Colours are relative to the country. Two cards showing the same number can show different colours: a rail doesn't compare across countries.
- A dash carries no colour and no vote. A series that stopped years ago counts as a dash. Below a working minimum of live rows the pill reads Thin data.
- The colour is only as good as the published number. The pill says how much of the card is live, not whether it's reliable.