Global Macro Pulse use cases
What you can do with FinzData Global Macro Pulse
Official statistics tell you what happened last month. Global Macro Pulse tells you what is happening this week: ships through 28 chokepoints, port calls and trade volumes at 2,000+ ports, flights by airport, airline and country, toll and congestion traffic, and Taiwan and Korea chip exports. Here is how traders, economists, quants and risk teams use it.
Nowcast global trade before the official data
Customs and trade statistics arrive weeks after the month ends. Daily port calls and estimated import and export volumes for 2,000+ ports, plus ship transits through 28 chokepoints, show the turn in trade as it happens. Sum container port calls for a country's main ports, compare them with the same weeks a year ago, and you have a running read on its exports and imports.
Ask your AI: "Using FinzData, compare container port calls at Shanghai, Ningbo and Shenzhen over the last 8 weeks with the same weeks last year."
Trade supply shocks: the Red Sea, Hormuz and Panama
When a chokepoint is disrupted, ships reroute and the change shows in the daily counts within days: fewer transits through Suez and Bab el-Mandeb and more around the Cape of Good Hope, tanker traffic through Hormuz, or draft limits at Panama. Freight, tanker and container-line equities, oil spreads and insurers all react to these moves.
Ask your AI: "Using FinzData, chart daily tanker transits through the Strait of Hormuz and container ships through Suez and the Cape of Good Hope since 2023."
Oil, LNG and tanker markets
Tanker transits by chokepoint, with capacity by vessel type, track the physical flow behind crude and product prices. Pair them with FinzData's EIA inventories, crack spreads and energy futures curves on the same key to see whether flows confirm the curve.
Ask your AI: "Using FinzData, show weekly tanker capacity through Hormuz and Malacca next to the WTI front-month spread."
Container shipping, retail and the inventory cycle
Port calls at Los Angeles, Long Beach, Rotterdam and Singapore lead retail restocking and the import-heavy parts of GDP. Analysts covering shipping lines, logistics, ports, retailers and freight forwarders use the daily series to time revisions before company reports.
Ask your AI: "Using FinzData, show daily container port calls at Los Angeles and Long Beach this year versus last year."
Airlines, travel and jet fuel demand
Daily departures, arrivals and active aircraft by airport, airline, country and region measure travel demand in real time. US flights, cancellations and delays by airline go back to 1987. Use them for airline and travel equities, airport operators, hotels and jet fuel demand.
Ask your AI: "Using FinzData, compare daily flight departures in the US, China and Europe since 2024 and flag countries where flights are falling."
City activity and consumer mobility
Toll and congestion-zone traffic in New York, Buenos Aires, Hong Kong, Stockholm, Gothenburg and on Taiwan's freeways measures how much people and goods move through major economies, day by day. It is an early read on local consumption, commuting and office occupancy.
Ask your AI: "Using FinzData, chart daily vehicles entering the New York congestion zone and crossing its bridges and tunnels this year."
The AI and semiconductor cycle
Korea and Taiwan publish chip and AI-hardware exports earlier than most companies report. Korea exports of integrated circuits, storage and computers, and Taiwan exports of machinery and electrical equipment, lead earnings for memory, foundry, server and AI-hardware names. Every first release and revision is kept, so backtests use only what was known at the time.
Ask your AI: "Using FinzData, show Korea integrated circuit exports and Taiwan machinery and electrical exports, change versus a year earlier, first release only."
Emerging-market FX and country risk
A country's exports, imports and travel flows feed its currency. Port activity, chokepoint dependence and flights by country give currency and sovereign analysts a daily signal for economies that publish official data slowly.
Ask your AI: "Using FinzData, show daily port calls for Vietnam, Malaysia and Indonesia against a year ago, next to their flight departures."
Systematic strategies and alternative-data research
Every pulse dataset is daily and point-in-time, on the same API key as 16,000+ US stocks, 5,100+ ETFs, 139 futures markets and 18,000+ macro series. Quants test whether a shipping, travel or chip-export signal leads returns, then run it on FinzData's server-side backtester.
Ask your AI: "Using FinzData, test whether a falling 4-week trend in Red Sea transits led tanker and container-line stocks since 2019."
Supply-chain risk for corporates and insurers
Procurement teams, supply-chain planners, marine insurers and credit analysts watch the chokepoints and ports their suppliers depend on. A drop in transits or port calls flags delays before they reach shipment schedules.
Ask your AI: "Using FinzData, list the chokepoints where daily transits are lowest versus a year ago this month."
Who uses it
- Macro and FX traders: trade, travel and chip-cycle signals ahead of official releases.
- Commodity traders: tanker and bulk flows through Hormuz, Malacca, Suez and Panama.
- Equity analysts: shipping, logistics, airlines, travel, retail and semiconductors.
- Economists: nowcasts of exports, imports and mobility for 2,000+ ports and dozens of countries.
- Quants and data scientists: point-in-time daily series for backtests and machine learning.
- Risk and supply-chain teams: early warning on chokepoints and ports.
Get started
Every FinzData key, including the free AI preview, gets the last 30 days. Full history is $195 for Global Macro Pulse, or $29 per theme (Shipping, ports & cargo; Air traffic; Road & toll traffic; Asia tech exports). Connect FinzData to Claude, ChatGPT or Grok and ask in plain English, or call GET https://api.finzdata.com/v1/pulse/chokepoints?match=Suez with your key.
Frequently asked questions
Which AI assistants can use Global Macro Pulse?
Any assistant that supports MCP connectors, including Claude, ChatGPT and Grok, through the FinzData connector at https://api.finzdata.com/mcp. The tool is get_global_pulse.
How far back does the data go?
Chokepoint transits and port activity go back to 2019, US flight delays to 1987, Buenos Aires toll traffic to 2008 and Taiwan freeways to 2014; flight traffic by airport, airline and country is daily and growing.
Is it point-in-time?
Yes. Each row is what was known on that day, and export series keep every first release and revision.
What does it cost?
Global Macro Pulse is $195, one-time, for every dataset and its full history; single themes are $29; $145 alongside another data purchase. The last 30 days are free on any key.