CIBC World Markets Corp

Equity analysts at CIBC World Markets Corp. are relied upon for their opinions on publicly traded stocks by thousands of investors around the world. Their research and reports on trends in the marketplace contribute to stocks going up and down.

So how do they predict these market trends? What goes into a CIBC analyst report? Well, lots and lots of data, to start. One analyst team at CIBC uses DataUnison's customizable e-commerce dashboard to examine trends in consumer spending on eBay, which offers insights into the health of the economy and the future performance of certain stocks.

"eBay data is very indicative of what's going on in the broader e-commerce space," said Brian Russo, equity analyst at CIBC. "For example, by examining the satellite radio and related sales on eBay, we were able to get a sense of how well each of the two major satellite radio companies were doing through the holidays, as well as how other major online retailers would fare based on similar sales on their sites."

Russo says that the eBay data is one of many sources from which he and his team pull data for their reports, but that it has proven to be a barometer of trends in consumer spending. DataUnison, a licensed reseller of eBay Market Data, provides up to two years of historical eBay data to CIBC through its customized dashboard. Russo and his team use this dashboard to analyze spending on everything from Apple iPods to women's sweaters in order to provide solid recommendations to investors through CIBC's published reports.

"DataUnison helped us identify these trends," said Russo.

DataUnison licenses raw data from eBay through the eBay Market Data program and formats it for easy data analysis. Through the use of its Application Programming Interface (API), DataUnison was able to customize a research dashboard for CIBC that provides exactly what the company needed in an analysis tool.

Russo describes the DataUnison team as professional and responsive, making it possible for CIBC to get the data in time for the Q4 earnings season - typically the most important quarter of the year for retailers. "They worked closely with CIBC to give us exactly what we were looking for - we look forward to working with DataUnison in the new year."

For more about DataUnison and its customizable market research tools, please visit www.dataunison.com.