US Leading Economic Index: Still a weak trend  - Wells Fargo

The Leading index dropped 0.1% in December. Analysts at Wells Fargo explained that most of the drop was due to the stock market correction but they warn that still, three other categories were negative and many others were flat or only slightly higher. It suggests slower growth ahead.

Key Quotes: 

“The leading economic index (LEI) has declined in two out of the past three months, though that may sound worse than it is. A steep selloff in the stock market in the closing days of 2018 weighed heavily on the index for December. It’s anybody’s guess where equities are headed in the last week of January, but a rally in recent weeks has lifted the S&P 500 more than 5% on a year-to-date basis as of this writing.

“Over the past couple of years positive contributions to the index have been getting smaller on trend. The most consistent example of this is the interest rate spread as the yield curve flattens.