Gary Siegel

Construction spending increased 2.2% in April, the Commerce Department said Monday, and is 4.8% above the April 2014 level.

Real gross domestic product growth will slow to 2.1% this year from 2.4% last year before surging to 2.7% in 2016, according to participants in the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago annual Automotive Outlook Symposium.

Urging "continued patience" on monetary policy because conditions haven't been met, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston President Eric Rosengren suggested Monday economic weakness may not be a transitory event.

The University of Michigan's final May consumer sentiment index reading was 90.7, compared to the preliminary May 88.6 and the final April 95.9, according to market sources.

The Chicago Purchasing Managers' Business Barometer fell to 46.2 in May from 52.3 in April, the National Association of Purchasing Management-Chicago said Friday.

The seasonally adjusted Milwaukee Report on Business slipped to 47.7 in May from 48.1 in April, the Institute for Supply Management-Milwaukee reported Friday.

The Midwest Economy Index slipped to 0.29 in April from a downwardly revised 0.33 in March, first reported as 0.39, the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago said Friday.

The Federal Open Market Committee must display extraordinary patience and hold off raising the fed funds rate this year to reach its dual mandate, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis President Narayana Kocherlakota said Thursday.

Promising higher prices, which would increase inflation, may be the best policy to relieve credit market stress when zero lower bound rates threaten, according to a study released by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Thursday.

Pending home sales increased 3.4% to an index reading of 112.4 in April, after a revised 1.2% increase to 108.7 in March, according to a report released Wednesday by the National Association of Realtors.

Texas service sector activity "continued to reflect expansion in May but at a slower pace than in April," according to business executives responding to the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas' Texas Service Sector Outlook Survey, as the revenue index fell to 3.8 from 14.6.

Texas factory activity, as measured by the production index, "declined in April," according to the monthly business activity survey conducted by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, released Tuesday.

The region's non-manufacturing sector surged in May, as the general business conditions index climbed to 54.5 from 41.0 in April, this month's Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia Report on Business indicates.

Service sector activity "improved in May," according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond service-sector activity survey, released Tuesday.

Manufacturing activity in the central Atlantic region "flattened in May," according to the monthly business activity survey conducted by the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, as the manufacturing index improved to positive 1 in April from negative 8 in March.

The consumer confidence index rose to 95.4 in May from a revised 94.3 last month, The Conference Board reported Tuesday.

Sales of new single-family homes climbed 6.8% to a 517,000 seasonally adjusted annual rate in April, according to data released by the Commerce Department Tuesday.

Because monetary policy works with a lag, if the economy grows as expected, the time will be right to raise interest rates sometime this year, Federal Reserve Board Chair Janet Yellen said Friday.

Only "a few" participants expect economic data will show sufficient improvement to warrant a rate hike increase at the Federal Open Market Committee's June meeting, according to minutes of its April meeting, released Wednesday.

A "statistical anomaly" could be responsible for exaggerating the weakness in the first quarter gross domestic product, despite the numbers being adjusted by season, according to researchers at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.