2018.11.2110:41:00UTC+00Uptick By U.S. Leading Economic Index Matches Estimates

Pointing to a slowdown in the pace of U.S. economic growth, the Conference Board released a report on Wednesday showing only a slight uptick by its index of leading economic indicators in the month of October.

The Conference Board said its leading economic index inched up by 0.1 percent in October after climbing by an upwardly revised 0.6 percent in September. The modest increase by the index matched economist estimates.

"The index still points to robust economic growth in early 2019, but the rapid pace of growth may already have peaked," said Ataman Ozyildirim, Director of Economic Research and Global Research Chair at the Conference Board.

He added, "While near term economic growth should remain strong, longer term growth is likely to moderate to about 2.5 percent by mid to late 2019."

The modest increase by the headline index came as positive contributions from improving consumer expectations for business conditions, the yield spread and the Leading Credit Index were partly offset by negative contributions from stock prices and average weekly jobless claims.

The report also said the coincident economic index rose by 0.2 percent in October after edging up by 0.1 percent in September. The continued increase reflected positive contributions from all four indicators that make up the index.

The lagging economic index also climbed by 0.4 percent in October after dipping by 0.2 percent in the previous month.

The rebound reflected positive contributions from the duration of unemployment, the average prime rate charged by banks, the change in consumer prices for services, and the ratio of consumer installment credit outstanding to personal income.