By CountingPips.com
The U.S. Leading Indicators Index published by the Conference Board today increased for the fifth straight month in August. The Leading Indicator Index, which measures future economic activity, registered a 0.6 percent increase in August following a revised increase of 0.9 percent in July. The index increased by 0.8 percent in June and has now advanced by 4.4 percent in the six months from February to August. August’s increase was just a bit lower than the market forecasts 
which were predicting a gain of 0.7 percent for the month.
Stock prices, building permits, interest rate spread and weekly jobless claims helped contribute to the increase in the leading indicators index.
An economist at the Conference Board, Ken Goldstein commented on the report saying, “The LEI has risen for five consecutive months and the coincident economic index has stopped falling. Taken together, this suggests that the recession is bottoming out. These numbers are consistent with the view that after a very severe downturn, a recovery is very near. But, the intensity and pattern of that recovery is more uncertain.”
The coincident index, which is viewed as a measure of the current economic activity, was unchanged in August after gaining in July by 0.1 percent while the lagging index decreased by 0.1 percent after declining by 0.5 percent in July.
US Dollar higher in Forex Trading today.
The U.S. dollar has been trading higher today against the other major currencies in the spot forex market. The dollar has been stronger versus the British pound, Australian dollar, Canadian dollar, Swiss franc, New Zealand dollar and the Japanese yen while the USD has been almost unchanged versus the Euro in the afternoon of the US session at 2:36pm.
GBP/USD Daily Chart – The British Pound Sterling falling today versus the US Dollar in forex trading and declining to under the 1.6200 level. The GBP/USD had reached a 2009 high on August 5th around the 1.7040 exchange level before sliding lower. The pair has now fallen under the 100-day simple moving average in red.
