What relation leading indicators have with business cycle in an economy?

Question

thanks for your answers

Answer 1

The leading indicators are selected to predicted upturns and downturns in economic activities over the business cycle. They are
1.The average manufacturing-worker workweek (from the employment report)
2. Initial jobless claims
3. Manufacturers' new orders for consumer goods and materials (from the factory orders report)
4. Vendor performance (from the Purchasing Managers' Index report)
5. Manufacturers' new orders for non defense capital goods (from the factory orders report)
6. Building permits (from the housing starts report)
7. The level of the S&P 500
8. The inflation-adjusted measure of the M2 money supply
9. The interest-rate spread between the 10-year Treasury note and the fed funds rate
10. The expectations portion of the University of Michigan's Consumer Sentiment Index

The first 6 are straight forward measures. The level of the S&P represents investors judgment of future profits and consumer sentiment with consumer judgment, a wisdom of crowds sort of thing.. The others two have been found to correlate with future business activity. For more detail see
http://www.thestreet.com/tsc/basics/tscglossary/leadingeconomicindicators.html

Answer 2

GDP growth, unemployment, are key things that go up and down in cycles.

inflation and interest rates might serve as indicators of a decline phase coming.