The services sector increased activity in the U.S. in December, the Institute for Supply Chain Management — or ISM, as it now prefers to be called — reported this morning. The ISM’s non-manufacturing index rose to 50.1 from 48.7 in November, the firm reported. Various representatives of industry had mixed things to say, according to the report: Professional industries report their trade is “leveling off”; retailers say they’re still cautious, though things are improving; wholesalers are still seeing negative effects. The index number is below the 50.5 that observers were looking for, but it is “expansionary” above 50. This morning’s weak ADP job numbers were balanced by outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas’s report that companies reported 151,121 job cuts in December, the fewest since early 2000. Stocks are turning up, with the Dow rising 13 points to 10,585, and the S&P 500 up a fraction at 1,136. The dollar was strengthening before the report and continues to rise, according to the ICE Dollar Index Futures, with the March contract up at 77.9.

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