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I don't think you should be so quick to dismiss this. While one variable alone is obviously not a good predictor, don't forget that these firms often have many

I don't think you should be so quick to dismiss this. While one variable alone is obviously not a good predictor, don't forget that these firms often have many other sources of data. If they can figure out what the average spend per customer is and combine that will some satellite traffic analysis, that should be enough to predict a trend. Also, some analysts don't necessarily need an exact figure for a quarter. Knowing that Wal-Mart traffic is trending up or down might be enough enough information to make a profit. Information is valuable to Wall Street, even if that information seems insignificant at first glance.

leot 16y ago
Most importantly, the analysts using the satellite images can look look at historical earnings reports to see whether the tool has any utility before they use it to make a prediction. In fact, I'm almost positive they did (in part because the article says so, more or less). EDIT: In particular, the regression mentioned was no doubt based on the relationship between historical earning reports and the sat imagery (once controlled for daily, weekly, monthly, and seasonal variation, etc.)