U.S. Economy Loses Pace — Chicago Fed

By Ed Frankl

U.S. economic growth looks set to weaken, with manufacturing continuing to hold back activity.

The Chicago Fed National Activity Index ticked down to minus 0.23 in April from a downwardly revised minus 0.04 in March, the Federal Bank of Chicago said Thursday.

The level was dragged by weaker production-related indicators, with employment indexes and the measure for personal consumption and housing also falling. The index's category for sales, orders and inventories, however climbed a little. Nevertheless, all four broad groups made negative contributions to the index in April.

However, the index's three-month rose to a positive reading of 0.01 in April, from minus 0.17 in the prior month.

The CFNAI diffusion index--which captures how much the change in the monthly index is spread among the indicators over three months--increased marginally to minus 0.07 from minus 0.08 in March. Periods of economic expansion have historically been associated with values of the CFNAI Diffusion Index above minus 0.35.

Write to Ed Frankl at edward.frankl@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 23, 2024 08:44 ET (12:44 GMT)

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