Plus: Leading Economic Indicators Increase and Largest Jet Order in History Announced.

Leading Economic Indicators Index Increases
The Conference Board’s index of leading economic indicators (LEI) rose 0.3 percent in June following a 0.8 percent increase in May and a 0.3 percent dip in April. June’s reading suggests that the economy should grow modestly in the second half of the year.

“[T]he strengths among the leading indicators have been balanced with the weaknesses in recent months,” Ataman Ozyildirim, economist at The Conference Board, said in an announcement of the findings.

The LEI index is a weighted gauge consisting of 10 components that reflect both business cycle peaks and troughs. Among the 10 indicators that make up the LEI, five increased in June: real money supply; the interest rate spread; building permits; the index of supplier deliveries (vendor performance); and manufacturers’ new orders for consumer goods and materials. The negative contributors were stock prices, consumer expectations, average weekly manufacturing hours and manufacturers’ new orders for non-defense capital goods.

“The Coincident Economic Index, a monthly measure of current economic activity, continued to increase slowly,” according to Ozyildirim. “The leading indicators point to slowly expanding economic activity in the coming months.”

Venture Capital Investments Rise
Venture capitalists invested $7.5 billion in 966 deals in the second quarter of 2011, marking a 19 percent increase in both value and number of deals from the first quarter of the year, according to the latest MoneyTree Report from PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC) and the National Venture Capital Association.

“The quarterly investment level represents the highest total in a single quarter since the second quarter of 2008,” PwC said in an announcement of the report. “The deal count for the first half of 2011 (1,780 deals) is nearly identical to that seen in the first half of 2010 (1,784 deals) while the $13.8 billion invested in the first half of 2011 represented a 12 percent increase over the $12.3 billion invested in the first half of 2010.”

The life sciences sector — biotechnology and medical device industries combined — saw an increase in venture capital dollars invested during Q2, rising 37 percent in dollars and 12 percent in deal volume from the prior quarter to $2.1 billion going into 206 deals. However, the software industry received the highest level of funding for all industries, rising 35 percent to total $1.5 billion invested during Q2 2011. The software industry also had the most deals completed in Q2 with 254 rounds, up 25 percent over Q1.

“Overall, the increase in investment levels in Q2 remains encouraging for entrepreneurs,” according to Tracy Lefteroff, global managing partner of the venture capital practice at PwC U.S. “At the current pace of venture capital investing, 2011 is on track to exceed $26 billion, which would put it as the sixth most active year in VC investing history.”

Largest Jet Order in History Announced
In what American Airlines describes as the largest commercial aircraft deal in history, the airline last week announced a record order for 460 single-aisle planes from The Boeing Co. and European company Airbus in a deal worth more than $38 billion.

“The order breaks the longstanding monopoly that Boeing has had with the airline and forced a significant shift in the company’s strategy,” the New York Times reports. “As recently as last month, Boeing had appeared reluctant to commit to a significant redesign of the 737 as it faced delays with the 787 Dreamliner. Boeing had been weighing whether to bolt a new, more-efficient engine onto its 737, or build an all-new plane.”

“After debating for months the future of its best-selling 737 commercial jet, Boeing has decided to offer a slightly upgraded version of the current plane instead of designing an all-new model,” the Wall Street Journal explains (subscription required).

Under the new agreements, American plans to acquire 460 narrow-body, single-aisle aircraft from the Boeing 737 and Airbus A320 families beginning in 2013 through 2022 — the largest aircraft order in aviation history. “As part of these agreements, starting in 2017 American will become the first network U.S. airline to begin taking delivery of ‘next generation’ narrow-body aircraft that will further accelerate fuel-efficiency gains,” according to an announcement of the landmark order.

“Analysts said the order raises the chances that Boeing and Airbus will increase production rates again. The 737 is assembled in Renton, Wash., the A320 in Toulouse, France,” the Associated Press says. “Both planes are already in such high demand that their makers are boosting production to 42 per month — Boeing in 2014, Airbus by early next year.”