-
US: Service-Sector Activity Continues to Expand
From wellsfargo.bluematrix.com
In a time of limited economic data, the ISMs take on greater importance. Earlier this week we learned that the manufacturing sector remained under pressure, while the latest ISM services index tells us activity expanded in October. This broadly corroborates the limited alternative data sources we've relied on with the historically long U.S. federal government shutdown limiting traditional data flow. The overall ISM rose to 52.4 in October amid a general firming in conditions last month (chart). Select industry comments were fairly mixed with some commenting on strong or steady business conditions, while others ... (full story)