April ISM services 51.6 vs 50.2 expected

• Prior was 50.8

Data:

• Prices paid: 65.1 vs. 60.9 prior
• New orders: 52.3 vs. 50.4 prior
• Employment: 49.0 vs. 46.2 prior

• Business activity 53.7 vs 55.9 prior
• Supplier deliveries 51.3 vs 50.6 prior
• Inventories 53.4 vs 50.3 prior
• Backlog of orders 48.0 vs 47.4 prior
• New export orders 48.6 vs 45.8 prior
• Imports 44.3 vs 52.6 prior
• Inventory sentiment 56.1 vs 56.6 prior

Comments in the report

• “Sales and traffic have improved on track with year-over-year seasonal trends. We seem to be outperforming some of the publicly traded restaurants reporting results.” [Accommodation & Food Services]
• “Tariffs are negatively impacting small business customers. Many small business customers source their products from China. They cannot afford to compete in the marketplace sourcing from other countries. We could not move products fast enough to beat the tariff starting dates.” [Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing & Hunting]
• “Business is steady.” [Construction]
• “There is great concern at my institution (medical school with a research institute and hospital) that changes from the current administration will severely and adversely affect many of the populations we are trying to help live healthier lives.” [Educational Services]
• “We are actively reviewing the impact of tariffs. We are seeing some vendors increasing their prices, and we are actively pushing back on those increases. We expect our vendors to honor our contracted pricing.” [Health Care & Social Assistance]
• “Generally, pricing is lower, but there is some uncertainty of actual, final costs due to tariffs.” [Other Services]
• “Our business is in a state of crises with uncertainty caused by both the ongoing trade war and the threats to federal funding of programs.” [Public Administration]
• “Uncertainty remains the dominating theme as the U.S. government has been maddeningly inconsistent with tariff implementation.” [Real Estate, Rental & Leasing]
• “Tariffs and concerns about government grants still impacting our procurement operations. Some projects are slowing or being held off to ensure we have funds to complete the current work.” [Transportation & Warehousing]
• “The tariff uncertainty is causing a lot of consumption of human capital. We are starting to see some tariff charges, some are significant given the price of the highly specialized units that were ordered over two years ago. Based on our spend over the last couple of years, we will have to adjust our capital and operations and maintenance plans.” [Utilities]

We're seeing some bids in the US dollar in response to this report. USD/JPY is up to 143.90 from 143.66 while the euro has fallen 15 pips.