The most widely followed indicator on the US service sector has come in better than expected with the ISM non-manufacturing PMI for December beating consensus forecasts with a print of 55.0 (54.5 exp and 53.9 prior.) Notable components of the report were as follows:
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Employment 55.2 vs 55.5 prior
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New Orders: 54.9 vs 57.1 prior
At the same time US factory orders for November came in at -0.7% vs -0.6% exp. +0.3% prior. On balance this is seen as slightly positive and certainly a far better reading than the manufacturing equivalent which fell to its lowest level in a decade for the same month. The initial market reaction has been mildly positive with the US dollar, US yields and stocks rising while Gold has pulled back from its daily high.
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The market reaction to the release has been fairly muted although Gold has pulled back from its highest level of the day. The precious metal has been in a strong uptrend, as defined by price being above the H1 cloud, for the best part of 3 weeks and the gap up over the weekend from 1549 remains unfilled. Source: xStation
