Pace of services growth quickens

The pace of growth in the dominant US services sector quickened a bit in December, an industry report showed on Thursday, suggesting continued improvement in the economy. The Institute for Supply Management said its services sector index rose to 52.6 last month from 52.0 in November. The reading fell shy of economists' forecasts for 53.0, according to the Reuters Poll, but was above the 50 mark that indicates expansion.
The report bolsters the case for "modest recovery in the US economy," said Omer Esiner, chief analyst at Commonwealth Foreign Exchange in Washington. The US services sector did appear to be holding up a bit better than the eurozone's. An upturn in German activity helped pull the Markit Eurozone Composite PMI up to 48.3 last month from 47.0, though the survey showed weaker economies such as Spain and Italy continued to fall behind Germany and France.