U.S. and Euro Zone Service-Sector Activity

May 4, 2012

Service-sector activity slowed in the United States last month, but the rate of contraction in Euroland services quickened, leaving their relative positions to one another little change.  The purchasing manager spread between the two indices favored the U.S. by 6.6 points.  Adding that differential to the manufacturing PMI spread of 8.9 yields a sum of 15.7 points in favor of the United States.  Compared to April 2011, the U.S. index of 53.5 was down just 0.9 points, having been above 50 without interruption throughout.  Euroland’s index fell by 10.3 points over the past year.  In April 2011, the sum of the manufacturing and service sector indices was 0.3% higher in Euroland than in the United States.  From then until now, there’s been a swing of 16 points over twelve months.  Euroland is now in recession, but the U.S. continues to grow.

PMIs U.S. Ezone   U.S. Ezone   Sum of
  Services Services Spread Mf’g Mf’g Spread Spreads
Jan 2011 58.3 55.9 +2.4 59.9 57.3 +2.6 +5.0
Feb 59.0 56.8 +2.2 59.8 59.0 +0.8 +3.0
March 56.3 57.2 -0.9 59.7 57.5 +2.2 +1.3
April 54.4 56.7 -2.0 59.7 58.0 +1.7 -0.3
May 54.5 56.0 -1.5 54.2 54.6 -0.4 -1.9
June 53.3 53.7 -0.4 55.8 52.0 +3.8 +3.4
July 53.4 51.6 +1.8 51.4 50.4 +1.0 +2.8
August 53.8 51.5 +2.3 52.5 49.0 +3.5 +5.8
Sept 52.6 48.8 +3.8 52.5 48.5 +4.0 +7.8
October 52.6 46.4 +6.2 51.8 47.1 +4.7 +10.9
November 52.6 47.5 +5.1 52.2 46.4 +5.8 +10.9
December 53.0 48.8 +4.2 53.1 46.9 +6.2 +10.4
Jan 2012 56.8 50.4 +6.4 54.1 48.8 +5.3 +10.9
Feb 57.3 48.8 +8.5 52.4 49.0 +3.4 +11.9
March 56.0 49.2 +6.8 53.4 47.7 +5.7 +12.5
April 53.5 46.9 +6.6 54.8 45.9 +8.9 +15.7

Copyright 2012, Larry Greenberg.  All rights reserved.  No secondary distribution without express permission.

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