ISM Services (December)

Bloomberg reports:

U.S. service industries contracted in December for a third consecutive month as consumers retrenched and the housing slump worsened.

The Institute for Supply Management’s index of non- manufacturing businesses, which make up almost 90 percent of the economy, rose to 40.6, higher than forecast, from a record-low 37.3 the prior month, figures from the Tempe, Arizona-based ISM showed today. Readings below 50 signal contraction, and this month’s reading is the second lowest since records started in 1997.

Source: ISM