Traders and clerks frantically signal trades in eurodollar futures at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange after the Federal Reserve announced a hike in interest rates, June 30, 1999. REUTERS/Scott Olson The monthly nonfarm payrolls ("jobs") report and the "advance" GDP reading put out by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis every quarter are the two biggest market-moving economic data releases for both stocks and bonds.

Less widely-followed releases, like the monthly reports on regional manufacturing activity put out by the Federal Reserve Banks of Philadelphia and Chicago, have less of an impact on the market.

Ironically, the jobs and GDP releases contain the least amount of information about the course of future economic growth, whereas the regional data are much better predictors of such activity.

These are the findings of a new report by Goldman Sachs chief economist Jan Hatzius.

"Our results suggest that these investors will put too much weight on indicators that tend to get heavily revised and are not very informative in real time," says Hatzius. "Moreover, many investors seem to look for a simple, high-profile summary of the performance of the economy, rather than piecing together a composite picture from many different reports. And the highest-profile indicators are the monthly employment report and the quarterly GDP report."

The charts below show the impact on markets of various economic indicators. The nonfarm payrolls and advance GDP releases are clearly the biggest market movers, while the Chicago and Philly Fed reports are among the least likely to move markets.

The next chart shows each data release's impact on Goldman's proprietary "current activity indicator," one of the firm's favorites for measuring economic growth.