The US Leading Economic Index (LEI) for January 2025 declined by 0.3%, reversing most of the gains from the previous two months. The Conference Board reported that this decline was driven by more pessimistic consumer assessments of future business conditions and fewer weekly hours worked in manufacturing. However, the LEI's six-month growth rate was 0.9%, and its annual growth rate continued to trend upward, suggesting milder obstacles to US economic activity ahead. Manufacturing orders have almost stabilized, and the yield spread contributed positively for the first time since November 2022. The Coincident Economic Index (CEI) for the US rose by 0.3% in January, with a six-month growth rate of 1.0%, indicating continued improvement in current economic conditions. The largest positive contributions to the CEI came from industrial production, followed by personal income less transfer payments, manufacturing and trade sales, and payroll employment. The Philadelphia Fed's Manufacturing Business Outlook Survey for February 2025 showed that manufacturing activity in the region continued to expand, with the general activity index falling from 44.3 to 18.1. Both price indexes for prices paid and prices received reached their highest levels since October 2022 and November 2022, respectively, signaling ongoing inflationary pressures. Firms expect their own prices to increase by 3.0% over the next year, with employee compensation costs forecasted to rise by 3.9%. The firms continue to expect growth over the next six months, with the future general activity index at 27.8, future new orders index at 33.1, future shipments index at 36.5, future prices paid index at 58.6, future prices received index at 46.1, future employment index at 23.7, and future capital expenditures index at 14.0. The Federal Reserve's actions included bidding for $261.6 million in 4-week Treasury bills with a high rate of 4.245% and a bid-to-cover ratio of 2.92, and purchasing $907.1 million in 30-year Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities (TIPS) at an auction where the high yield rate was 2.403%, with a bid-cover ratio of 2.48, 15.3% direct accepted, 77.5% indirect accepted, and a WI yield of about 2.400%. In the UK, January's Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose by 3.0% year-over-year, surpassing expectations of 2.8%, while falling by 0.1% month-over-month against expectations of a 0.3% decline. The Core CPI remained at 3.7% year-over-year, but fell by 0.4% month-over-month. The CPI Services rose by 5.0% year-over-year, slightly below the expected 5.1%. The UK's Producer Price Index (PPI) Input Prices rose by 0.1% year-over-year, surpassing the forecast of a 0.6% decline, and PPI Output Prices increased by 0.5% month-over-month, exceeding the expected 0.2%. The UK 3 Year Gilt Yield was 4.294%, with a bid-to-cover ratio of 3.09. In Germany, the 10 Year Bund Yield was 2.52%, with a bid-to-cover ratio of 2.8. In the Eurozone, consumer confidence for February improved to -13.6 from -14.2. The Federal Reserve also reported $3.23 billion in Discount-Window Loans and $188 million in Bank Term Funding Loans for the week ended February 19th. In the UK, the GfK Consumer Confidence index improved to -20 from -22 in February.