ISM Services Economy Shows Slowest Growth This Year

Photo of Jon C. Ogg
By Jon C. Ogg Updated Published
This post may contain links from our sponsors and affiliates, and Flywheel Publishing may receive compensation for actions taken through them.

Invalid Image
The Institute for Supply Management has released its data for April’s ISN non-Manufacturing sector and the reading is indicative of weaker and slowing growth.  The overall NMI came in at 53.5% versus 56.0 in March and under the consensus expectation of 56.0 from Bloomberg.  New orders and employment are both the weakest readings seen this year.

  • Business Activity Index at 54.6%, down by 4.3 percentage points lower than the 58.9 percent reported in March.
  • New Orders Index at 53.5%, a decrease of 5.3 percentage points.
  • Employment Index at 54.2%, a decrease of 2.5 percentage points.
  • The Prices Index decreased 10.3 percentage points to 53.6 percent, indicating prices increased at a significantly slower rate in April when compared to March.

This is the crux of the report and pretty much what you need to focus on: “Respondents’ comments affirm the slowing rate of growth. In addition, they remain concerned about rising fuel costs and the impact on shipping, transportation and petroleum-based product costs.”   The good news is that the ISM data in the services (non-manufacturing) economy is still above the 50.0% line showing growth over recessionary trends.  The bad news is that this is getting dangerously close to the red-line of contraction.

JON C. OGG

Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.

Photo of Jon C. Ogg
About the Author Jon C. Ogg →

Jon Ogg has been a financial news analyst since 1997. Mr. Ogg set up one of the first audio squawk box services for traders called TTN, which he sold in 2003. He has previously worked as a licensed broker to some of the top U.S. and E.U. financial institutions, managed capital, and has raised private capital at the seed and venture stage. He has lived in Copenhagen, Denmark, as well as New York and Chicago, and he now lives in Houston, Texas. Jon received a Bachelor of Business Administration in finance at University of Houston in 1992. www.247wallst.com.

Featured Reads

Our top personal finance-related articles today. Your wallet will thank you later.

Continue Reading

Top Gaining Stocks

META Vol: 22,149,530
KMX Vol: 607,944
PNR Vol: 806,706
NKE Vol: 8,603,783
AOS Vol: 359,825

Top Losing Stocks

MRNA Vol: 4,141,099
CTRA Vol: 73,319,495
CRWD Vol: 2,209,060
DDOG Vol: 1,493,498
EPAM Vol: 249,757