This is the Marketplace Minute.

I'm Justin Ho.

Stocks closed up on Monday.

The Dow and the NASDAQ gained about a third of a percent, and the S&P rose two-tenths percent.

An index of leading economic indicators ticked down in December,

according to the conference board. It says that was mostly because of weak conditions and

manufacturing, along with high interest rates and low consumer confidence.

The conference board says that's a sign that the economy could contract in the middle of the year.

That said, the index has been declining at a slower pace, and consumer confidence has been picking

up more recently.

Later this week the Commerce Department will put out its first estimate of GDP for the fourth quarter of last year.

Economists expect that the economy grew at a slower pace than it did in the third.

We'll also get a sense of how much consumer spent in December when the Commerce

Department's Personal Consumption Expenditures Index comes out on Friday.

That'll tell us how much prices rose too. I'm Justin Ho with the Marketplace Minute. You're going to.