2019.02.2110:24:00UTC+00U.S. Leading Economic Index Unexpectedly Dips 0.1% In January

With weakness in labor market components offsetting strengths in the financial components, the Conference Board released a report on Thursday unexpectedly showing a modest drop by its reading on leading U.S. economic indicators in the month of January.

The Conference Board said its leading economic indicators edged down by 0.1 percent after coming in unchanged in December. Economists had expected the index to inch up by 0.1 percent.

"Based on preliminary data, the US LEI declined very slightly in January and December's decline was revised up to no change," said Ataman Ozyildirim, Director of Economic Research at The Conference Board. "The US LEI has now been flat essentially since October 2018."

He added, "The Conference Board forecasts that US GDP growth will likely decelerate to about 2 percent by the end of 2019."

The report said the coincident economic index crept up by 0.1 percent in January after rising by 0.2 percent in December, while the lagging economic index climbed by 0.5 percent after a 0.3 percent increase in the previous month.