August data indicated that the U.S. service sector continued to struggle for momentum, with both business activity and incoming new work expanding at slightly slower rates than in the previous month. This contributed to a moderation in job creation to its weakest since December 2014. Meanwhile, service providers are upbeat overall about the 12 - month outlook for business activity, and the degree of positive sentiment remained comfortably above the survey - record low seen in June. At 51.0 in August, the seasonally adjusted Markit final U.S. Services Business Activity Index dropped from 51.4 in July but remained ... (full story)