Fed to Look at Key Rate; Economic Reports Due

Federal Reserve policymakers meet Tuesday to consider the seventh cut in interest rates this year. Economic indicators this week might show that previous reductions are beginning to spur a pickup in growth.

The Conference Board’s index of leading economic indicators for July, intended to look three to six months ahead, is expected to have increased 0.3%, just as it did a month earlier, analysts said. The research group will release its report today.

The expected increase in the Conference Board’s leading indicators index would be the fourth in a row. Ryan Brecht, an economist at Standard & Poor’s MMS in Belmont, Calif., said he expects five of the 10 components that make up the index to rise, including a gain in the University of Michigan’s index of consumer expectations. The consumer sentiment index has risen three times in the last four months and in August reached its highest level since January, according to a report last Friday.