U.S. Leading Economic Index rises in March

The U.S. Leading Economic Index for March rose after rising in the prior months. The LEI continued with its upward movement, rising 0.3 percent to 109, following a rise of 0.7 percent in the prior month. The index has not recorded a negative month reading since May of 2016.

The headline figure was mainly driven by the interest rate spread and ISM new orders, contributing 0.15 and 0.13 point respectively. There has been an encouraging balance of strength among the hard and soft data recently.

The labor market component, along with initial jobless claims and manufacturing hours worked, subtracted 0.05 and 0.07 percentage points, respectively. This fall comes after an encouraging February in which these components were the greatest buoys to the index, noted Wells Fargo in a research report.

“The weakness in the labor indicators does not come as much of a surprise given March’s underwhelming nonfarm payroll report”, stated Wells Fargo.

At 20:00 GMT the FxWirePro's Hourly Strength Index of US Dollar was neutral at 42.752. For more details on FxWirePro's Currency Strength Index, visit http://www.fxwirepro.com/currencyindex

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