A key forward-looking US economic figure has recorded a decline in January for a fourth straight month. suggesting weak growth ahead for the world's largest economy.
The Conference Board research group said its index of leading economic indicators fell 0.1% in January, in line with most economists' expectations.
'The change in the leading index, including the duration, intensity, and dispersion across markets, suggests weak growth going forward,' said Ken Goldstein, an economist at the Conference Board.
The Conference Board cited tumbling share prices and declining demand for home-building permissions as the main reasons for the index's latest drop.
US economic growth slowed dramatically during the fourth quarter of 2007 amid a worsening housing market slump and as a credit crunch swept the financial markets.
Mr Goldstein said the Conference Board's latest research suggests the US economy is not in recession, but is also not firing on all cylinders.
Separate figures showed that a manufacturing slowdown in the US mid-Atlantic region this month reached its deepest in seven years.
The Philadelphia Federal Reserve's business activity index, a reading on factories in the region which is seen as a pre-cursor of national factory performance, fell to minus 24 this month. It was the lowest reading since February 2001 and was down from minus 20.9 in January. Readings below zero represent contraction in the industrial sector.
