The Conference Board announced on August 20th the fourth consecutive increase in its Leading Economic Indicators Index. The index jumped 1.2% in May, 0.8% in June and was up 0.6% in July. The index had peaked in July 2007, and had "fallen steadily" until April 2009.
"The indicators suggest that the recession is bottoming out, and that economic activity will likely begin recovering soon. The Coincident Economic Index was flat in July – the first time it did not register a decline since October 2008," said Ken Goldstein, economist at The Conference Board, in the announcement. Read the Conference Board's LEI Technical notes, here.
