Gary Siegel

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.

Federal Open Market Committee communications have been "useful, but … incomplete," Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis Senior Vice President and Director of Research Sam Schulhofer-Wohl writes in its annual report.

Builders' confidence in the market for new single-family homes fell as the National Association of Home Builders' housing market index to 54 in May from 56 in April.

The New York region's service sector activity "expanded moderately," according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York's May Business Leaders Survey, released Monday.

The economy is not looking as strong going forward three years as it did last quarter and the increase in jobs will not be as large as they have recently, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia's survey of professional forecasters for the second quarter.

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