The U.S. Composite Index of Leading Economic Indicators rose 0.1% in February after a decline of 0.3% in January, the Conference Board said today.

The February increase was the third in the last four months.

The Conference Board said the index advanced to 115.6 in February from 115.5 the previous month. The index had risen 0.3% in both November and December.

The index is designed to predict economic activity over the next three to six months.

The Conference Board said that five of the 10 components of the leading index contributed to February’s rise: a decline in unemployment insurance claims, stock prices, the money supply, vendor performance and manufacturers’ orders for consumer goods and materials.

Negative contributors were average weekly manufacturing hours, the interest rate spread, building permits and the index of consumer expectations. Manufacturers’ new orders for capital goods held steady.

The index of coincident indicators, designed to measure current activity, advanced 0.4% in February to 119.6 after dropping 0.6% in January to 119.1. The index of lagging indicators was up 0.4% at 99.6 in February after a gain of 1% in January to 99.2.