Conference Board Leading Economic Index The LEI for the US increased 0.3 percent in January to 99.5 (2004 = 100) following no change in December and a 0.9 percent increase in November. The US Leading Economic Index continues to fluctuate on a monthly basis, but the six month average growth rate has been relatively stable [...]
US job growth slowed sharply in December ... closing out the year on a surprisingly weak note and potentially complicating the Fed’s plan for its bond-buying program. Payrolls rose by 74,000 last month (of those, 40,000 were temporary positions), a sharp dip from numbers of over 200,000 the prior two months (and job growth of [...]
Led by improvements in production related indicators, the Chicago Fed National Activity Index (CFNAI) increased to -0.30 in May from 0-0.52 in April. The index’s 3 month moving average, CFNAI-MA3, decreased to -0.43 in May from -0.13 in April, marking the third consecutive reading below zero and its lowest level since October 2012. May’s CFNAI-MA3 [...]