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| ISM May Service-Sector Results (#1) - Jun. 5, 2006 |
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Summary
Earlier this morning, the Institute for Supply Management reported that its index designed to measure the economy's service-sector activity fell almost three points during May, to a reading of 60.1. Meanwhile, the index's price component spurted seven points during the month.
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* The Institute for Supply Management released May results for its service-sector index earlier this morning. Per the ISM report, the index fell to a reading of 60.1 in May, down about 4.6% from April's 63.0.
* The May result came in virtually at the consensus forecast that was looking for 60.0.
* In May of 2005, ISM's service-sector index stood at 59.2, 0.9 points or 1.5% below the latest result.
* For May of 2006, the prices-paid component rose to 77.5, a spurt of seven points or 9.9% from April's 70.5. Moreover, this was only slightly below this component's all-time high reading of 78.4, which was set in September of last year.
* From its recent low of 60.5 in March, the price component has risen 17 points or more than 28%.
* The price pressures evident in the May service-sector data join those reported by ISM last week in its May manufacturing release. For that sector, ISM indicated a 7.7% increase in prices during the month.
(NOTE: Overall index and sub-index readings above 50.0 indicate expansion; readings below 50.0 indicate contraction.)
Now that ISM has released both its service-sector and manufacturing indexes for April, I will shortly publish a more detailed analysis of each measure.
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