We actually have some positive, well, decent economic news to report this morning. The Institute For Supply Management Non-Manufacturing (services) Survey came out this morning with a score of 55 (above 50 denotes expansion).
While the graph below (red shaded areas highlight past recessions) doesn’t look all that rosy (trend of lower highs and lower lows), today’s reading indeed conflicts (positively) with last week’s dismal manufacturing survey results (which, negatively-speaking, tends to lead in terms of trend), and reads encouraging in terms of near-term recession risk:
Here’s directly from the report. It’s virtually all about sentiment. I.e., per the areas I red-dotted, actual activity isn’t all that inspiring:
Click to enlarge…