First Economic Report of the day-diappointing

Chicago Fed National Activity Index

Released on 9/26/2011 8:30:00 AM For Aug, 2011 Prior Actual 3 Month Moving Average -0.29  -0.28  Level -0.06  -0.43

Highlights Pulled down by the weak employment report, the Chicago Fed National Activity index fell to minus 0.43 in August from plus 0.02 in July (revised from -0.06). Employment-related indicators fell to -0.08 vs July's plus 0.12, while consumption & housing weakened to -0.35 from -0.33 in July. Production-related indicators rose 0.01 in August but are down sharply from 0.26 in July. Despite the big decline in August's overall index, the three-month moving average fell only slightly to -0.28 from -0.27 in July (revised from -0.29).

Definition The Chicago Fed National Activity Index (CFNAI) is a monthly index designed to better gauge overall economic activity and inflationary pressure. The CFNAI is a weighted average of 85 existing monthly indicators of national economic activity. It is constructed to have an average value of zero and a standard deviation of one. Since economic activity tends toward trend growth rate over time, a positive index reading corresponds to growth above trend and a negative index reading corresponds to growth below trend. (Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago)

Housing is next at 10 a.m.