The private research group said that its composite index of leading indicators fell 0.3 percent in October to 115.1, after declining 0.3 percent in September.
The leading indicators, which are equal to 100 in 1996, are a composite index of ten economic indicators that typically lead overall economic activity. The major contributors to October's decline were the real money supply, the interest rate spread, and consumer expectations.
"A fifth straight decline in the leading indicators is a clear signal that the economy is losing steam, and may start off 2005 with a relatively weak pace of economic activity," Conference Board economist Ken Goldstein said.
He added the results of his group's survey of business confidence "suggest that worries about where the economy is heading may cause some strategic plans to be put on hold."
The board warned in its report that "the recent declines in the leading index have not been large enough nor have they persisted for long enough to signal an end to the current expansion." Still, the group noted that October's weakness was "more widespread."
During the six-month span through October, the leading index dropped 0.7 percent.
The Conference Board said that its indicators that seek to describe current and past conditions were positive.
The board said the coincident index, an index of current economic activity, increased 0.3 percent to 118.3 after rising 0.1 percent in September.
The lagging index improved 0.2 percent to 98.5 in October, with four of the seven components advancing.
The board's bleak report comes at a time when many are getting more optimistic about the economy's outlook. Much of that renewed hope is based on the latest turn of the employment data, which saw a surge of 337,000 new jobs in October and upward revisions to prior months' soft hiring data.
Forecasters in the most recent Blue Chip Economic Indicators poll predict that growth for the year, on a fourth quarter to fourth quarter basis, will have expanded 3.8 percent. Those same analysts are expecting that growth next year will rise by a "trend-like" 3.5 percent.
The dark side to the growth picture is that growth has been hampered by high energy prices, although those pressures have abated somewhat in recent weeks. Still, they were robust enough to drive the biggest gain in overall producer prices during October in nearly 15 years.
The Conference Board is a New York research group that computes the composite indexes from the U.S. Department of Commerce.
Meanwhile, the Labor Department said first-time applications for unemployment benefits declined last week.
Labor said initial jobless claims fell 3,000 to a seasonally adjusted level of 334,000 in the week that ended Nov. 13. The much-watched four-week average, however, rose 1,000 to 338,250.
Labor Department said the number of workers on the nation's unemployment rolls declined in the week of Nov. 6, the latest period for which the data is available.
