FYI: We all know that the US manufacturing sector has been pretty sick over the last few months, but for most of this time the services sector, which is a much larger share of the economy, has been holding up relatively well. The big question facing the economy was whether or not the ills of the manufacturing sector would infect the services sector or remain contained. Today’s ISM report on the Non-Manufacturing sector showed that while the services sector is still relatively healthy and nowhere near as sick as the manufacturing sector, it has the sniffles. While economists were expecting the headline reading to come in at a level of 55.1, the actual reading was quite a bit weaker at 53.5. Make no mistake, this is still in expansion territory, but it is the lowest level in nearly two years (February 2014). Taking this morning’s report and Monday’s report on the Manufacturing sector, the combined ISM fell to 52.9 from 54.4. That’s also the lowest level since February 2014.
Regards,
Ted
https://www.bespokepremium.com/think-big-blog/services-sector-catches-a-cold/
