Stocks slipped Wednesday following data fro the Institute of Supply Management indicating December growth in the service sector. While such new might traditionally inspire more investment, the crawling growth was not enough to negate the number of job losses also reported for December.
The services index reached 50.1 for December a small improvement on November’s 48.7. The reading missed economists’ predictions of 50.5 by a .4 margin. Economists were also too optimistic in their forecast on job losses, predicting 73,000 layoffs, 11,000 less than the actual 84,000.
The disappointment led the Dow Jones industrial average to fall 7.26 points, or 0.07 percent, to 10,564.69. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index also slipped 1.08 points, or 0.10 percent, to 1,135.44. The Nasdaq Composite Index also fell, losing 7.13 points, or 0.31 percent, to finish at 2,301.58.
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