The US services sector forged ahead at a record pace in January, outstripping expectations for a more modest expansion, and hinting at even better economic growth to come, a report on Wednesday showed.
The Institute for Supply Management said its seven-year-old index of US non-manufacturing activity rose to a record high of 65.7 last month from 58.0 in December.
"It's a good number. You don't have a lot of history to go on with this series, but even in the go-go '90s you didn't do much better than where we are now," said Cary Leahey, economist at Deutsche Bank Securities.
Economists polled by Reuters had expected a reading of 60.0, so the ISM survey would indicate that more strong economic growth is ahead.
The pace of job creation slackened in spite of the burst in business activity, according to the survey.
The jobs component of the ISM non-manufacturing survey fell to 53.4 in January from 54.0 in December, to its lowest since October 2003.
But economists said the overall level of employment remained strong and was not a cause for concern.
"You might raise an eyebrow about slight downward movement in employment. But overall, these (ISM) surveys are super-strong," Leahey said.
"You haven't yet had a senior business executive make statements in public that are as strong as these numbers, so in some sense investors don't really believe them. But these numbers are indicative of very strong GDP (gross domestic product) growth," he said.
In a separate report, the US Commerce Department said new orders for manufactured goods rose by 1.1 percent in December, after falling by an upwardly revised 0.9 percent in November. Analysts had forecast a rise of 0.2 percent.
Earlier, a survey of US mortgage bankers showed a decline in the number of applications for home loans last week as the economy continues to recover and interest rates nudge higher, although mortgage demand was still robust.
The Mortgage Bankers Association said its market index, a gauge of weekly mortgage activity, fell 1.5 percent to 855.7 in the week to January 30.