US Services Sector Picks Up Steam, Underscoring Message From Jobs Report

In the wake of a much improved read on the US manufacturing sector and a blistering update on the labor market, macro watchers were keenly eyeing Monday's only top-tier data release for evidence that services sector activity across the world's largest economy re-accelerated last month. As it turns out, it did. Activity picked up meaningfully, as did an underlying measure of hiring which unexpectedly plummeted in December. ISM services printed 53.4 for January, Monday's release showed. That was