Service sector remains healthy

The January ISM service sector report also exceeded expectations, led by a huge (and perhaps suspect) gain in the employment index. Or perhaps it was just that the numbers reported in the past several months were depressed because everyone was afflicted with concerns that the Eurozone financial crisis was going to tip the U.S. economy into a double-dip recession, and now those concerns are fading. Either way, the picture that emerges is one of ongoing growth; not spectacular, but almost certainly not what you would expect if the economy were at the tipping point of another economic slump.