The Commerce Department said Thursday that the U.S. economy grew at a 4.9 percent annual pace in the third quarter, the fastest pace in four years, but a second report underlines the pessimism that economists have about the current quarter.
The New York-based Conference Board said its index of leading economic indicators dropped 0.4 percent last month, to the lowest level in more than two years. The decline was bigger than forecast and followed a 0.5 percent slide in October.
Also Thursday, a report from the Labor Department showed the number of Americans filing for jobless benefits rose a greater-than-anticipated 12,000 last week, to 346,000.
“It’s certainly pointing to a slowdown,” Roger Kubarych, chief U.S. economist at UniCredit Global Research, said of the Conference Board’s report. “The fourth quarter is going to be much weaker than what we’ve been seeing.”
The figure reported by the Commerce Department was the third and final estimate of gross domestic product in the third quarter and was unchanged from the previous estimate published last month.
