ISM services index? That come out today?
Peculiar that the stock market today so easily dismissed a worse-than-expected August ISM non-manufacturing report.
Not a big surprise that ISM services weakness is overshadowed by better-than-expected payrolls report, but the complete disregard for this stinker seems a little odd.
After August ISM manufacturing’s upside surprise Wednesday, the Dow Industrials busted a 250-point move higher, with economists and other pundits quick to suggest the better-than-expected data should shelve any concerns about a double dip.
The fact that several regional manufacturing reports earlier in the month reported starkly different information was given little heed. “The contraction seen in some regional manufacturing surveys in August seems not to have been representative of the national manufacturing sector, as the ISM production index remains above-trend and the employment index was the highest since 1983,” Barclays Capital said this week.
Cut to today – the ISM services sector August gauge falls to 51.5 from 54.3, its lowest level since January and just a point and a half from slipping into contraction territory. The market flinched, juked and jived, but ultimately steadied and frolicked with the frisky euro again.
