Good news break -- leading indicators up

The Conference Board's index of leading economic indicators, which began dropping in the summer, showed an increase in September, taking a lot of people by surprise.

The New York-based business research group said its index of leading economic indicators rose 0.3% in September. Economists were expecting the index to have declined 0.1%, according to a survey conducted by Briefing.com.

In August, the index fell a revised 0.9% after a 0.7% decline in July.

Economic conditions started deteriorating this summer, and the recent volatility in the stock market and the credit crunch will "no doubt weaken the economy further," Ken Goldstein, a Conference Board economist, said in a statement.

"But latest data suggest that conditions in the non-financial economy are not falling apart," Goldstein said. "Data on hand reflect a contracting economy, but not one in free fall."

So things are bad, but not horrible. Which, compared to much of what we hear, is good.