Economic activity picked up this month in the US, preliminary PMI data released on Tuesday suggested.

The S&P Global gauge for America’s mighty services sector printed 50.9 in the flash estimate, beating the highest estimate from the relative handful of economists who ventured a guess. It was the best reading since July.

The manufacturing index reached 50 for the first time since April, a notable development. Consensus expected another month in contraction territory.

“US companies signaled a marginal expansion in business activity during October [as] manufacturers and service providers alike reported improved activity levels as the downturn in demand moderated,” the color accompanying the release said.

To be sure, the report didn’t testify to a gangbusters economy, but Thursday’s GDP data probably will, and the anecdotal evidence from this month’s early PMIs suggests Q4 is, at the least, not off to a bad start.

The decent readings made for a stark juxtaposition with PMIs out of Europe, which were dour (dire, even).

Notably, price pressures moderated further in the US, according to the release. “In spite of higher oil prices, firms’ input cost inflation fell sharply to the lowest since October 2020, and average selling prices for goods and services posted the smallest monthly rise since June 2020,” Chris Williamson, Chief Business Economist at S&P Global Market Intelligence, said.

It looked as though the favorable readings on prices were concentrated in services, which is (more than) fine — that’s where the concerns are.

Williamson said soft landing odds for the US are probably rising. He noted that S&P Global’s surveys stood out recently as one of the few indicators pointing to a slowdown. If these surveys are improving, that’s “good news,” as Williamson put it.

He went on to say the trajectory of the selling price gauges in the S&P Global survey suggests headline inflation in the US will fall “close to the Fed’s target in the coming months.” Better still, it now looks as though price stability will be achieved “without output falling into contraction.”

Knock on wood.