US Service Activity Expands At Fastest Pace Since 2024, In Mirror Image To Manufacturing Slump

It's only fitting that two days after we got the weakest US Manufacturing ISM print in over a year, earlier this morning we got a diametrically opposite report from the Service sector, which according to the Institute for Supply Management expanded in December at the fastest pace in more than a year, fueled by solid demand growth and a pickup in hiring. As the chart below shows, while the Service sector grew at the fastest pace since October 2024, the Manufacturing sector contracted at the fastest pace since November 2024.

The Institute for Supply Management’s index of services rose 1.8 points to 54.4, the highest since October 2024 (recall readings above 50 indicate expansion in the largest part of the economy). The December figure exceeded all projections in a Bloomberg survey of economists. Ironically, it printed at the exact same time as the latest JOLTs report which as we noted earlier, printed below all Wall Street estimates.  

New orders expanded by the most since September 2024 and a measure of business activity, which parallels the ISM’s factory output gauge, climbed to a one-year high. Export bookings grew at the fastest pace in more than a year. Meanwhile, ISM’s index of prices paid for services and materials showed the slowest growth in nine months. The supplier deliveries index fell 2.3 points from the highest level in a year.

Inventories expanded at the fastest pace since October 2024, based on the ISM’s gauge. Even so, a measure of inventory sentiment fell for a third month, suggesting fewer service providers saw their stockpiles as being too high.

The pickup in demand helped spark the biggest growth in services employment since February, and comes just days before the December jobs report out Friday is projected to show moderate payrolls growth in December and a slightly lower unemployment rate than a month earlier.

“The broad-based strength in the headline index suggests that conditions in the services sector are picking up, hinting at the potential for some more broad-based economic growth,” Alexandra Brown, North America economist at Capital Economics, said in a note.

Eleven industries reported growth last month, led by retail trade, finance and insurance, and accommodation and food services. Five contracted, including management of companies and support services.  

Below we share Select ISM survey respondent comments: 

• “We continue to experience higher prices, primarily due to the impact of the administration’s trade and tariff policies. We are disproportionately impacted by importing seafood from Southeast Asia and coffee from South America.” — Accommodation & Food Services
• “In general, business is flat. Value brands are still experiencing higher demand. But premium brands struggle to maintain market share.” — Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing & Hunting
• “Overall, business is healthy, most of our purchasing is staying consistent, and we are renewing most contracts as we head into the new year.” — Finance & Insurance
• “Flu cases on the rise; the vaccine is not of much help this year. Respiratory equipment and supplies are seeing a surge in demand.” — Health Care & Social Assistance
• “Annual pricing markups from key service and data providers are higher than they’ve been for many years — gradually drives costs up.” — Information
• “Continuing uncertainty and apprehension regarding tariffs and the resulting impact on pricing.” — Public Administration
• “High business activity due to the holiday season.” — Transportation & Warehousing

Commenting on the report, Bloomberg economist Alex Tanzi said that "the December ISM Services PMI reflects the economic turnaround since the government shutdown ended in November. Despite the sizable improvement, however, the tone of commentary remained uneasy, a warning sign for the future."

Tyler Durden Wed, 01/07/2026 - 12:28

Truth Is The Best Weapon In The War On Woke Insanity

Authored by Rob Smith via RealClearMarkets.com,

Now that Epiphany has begun and Christmas is over, perhaps it’s time to stop being so excessively nice to “groups” that do the most damage to an orderly and civilized world. The greater good requires us to hurt some feelings.  Remember in Star Trek when the Klingons attacked the USS Enterprise and Captain Kirk raised a force field so enemy weapons couldn’t penetrate the ship? That is precisely what the clever jackals on the Left have done to public discourse.

A generation ago, importing 100,000 Somalis into Minneapolis would have been rejected outright, because Westerners were still permitted to speak plainly about Somalis, their culture, and Islam. Today, that conversation is impossible. The Left has erected a rhetorical force field to shield its political interests from its most dangerous enemy: the truth.

No societal problem can be solved unless the remedy addresses reality. Speak a truth—no matter how calmly or sincerely—and you are instantly branded a racist, homophobe, white supremacist, misogynist, fatphobe, xenophobe, and bigot. Yet by every objective metric, certain groups of people simply aren’t very smart—100% demonstrable through IQ data, test scores, and long histories of non-achievement. Men and women are biologically, emotionally, and cognitively different. But the force field forbids me from saying that liberal white women are clinically insane due to biological brain differences, or that saving the Republic may require repealing the 19th Amendment. Oops—I said it. Instead of screeching “misogyny” and shutting down speech, how about a debate? Prove me wrong. In New York, ninety percent of them voted for Mamdani!

Spare me the Indian land acknowledgements and the performative inability to acknowledge who actually founded this country. By modern standards, every living American is a white supremacist. The Western world created virtually everything of value. Anyone here not living in a grass hut, speaking a language without an alphabet, and eating grasshoppers has voluntarily assimilated into Western European culture because they recognize it as—yes—supreme.

So can we finally discard “intersectionality,” that pathetic framework where every group that sucks demands handouts while blaming the groups that don’t suck for their failures? The only way to help groups that suck is to tell them they suck—and that improvement requires emulating those who don’t. What, exactly, is wrong with being xenophobic when the culture in question is a rotten, thieving, low-IQ Islamic culture that has been terrorizing the West for 1,400 years?

The wizards atop Leftist orthodoxy make the rules for everyone else—rules designed to insulate themselves from criticism and preserve political hegemony. If you tell dysfunctional groups the truth and then leave them alone, they tend to improve. Anyone who has spent time among the liberal elite knows their public virtue signaling about forbidden language is a sham. In private, they readily admit the truths they forbid others from stating. Somehow, they’ve convinced their hordes of useful idiots to believe what they themselves do not.

Acknowledging objective reality—things that are undeniably true—is not hate speech. We’ve been bullied into silence by the threat of being labeled a hater. And yes, there are plenty of things I hate—crime, waste, stupidity, fraud, dishonesty, Duke University—but I don’t hate people. Thinking liberal white women shouldn’t vote is not hatred. It’s recognition that they lack Aristotelian logic, the cornerstone of sound government and durable civilizations. I’m trying to protect them—from destroying the country and from having their suburban homes confiscated by red-star-wearing commissars, or worse, being sold into sex slavery by neighborhood mullahs. Calling insanity what it is an act of love.

Every day on social media we see videos of inner-city youths bum-rushing retail stores and looting with impunity. Total mayhem. Yet the force field prevents criticism—let alone identification of the culprits. Something is profoundly wrong with this culture, and the only cure is ruthless denunciation and an end to enabling dystopia. That, too, is love.

As one of the world’s great wordsmiths, I resent being told what words I may or may not use. Imagine if, during World War II, the Japanese informed MacArthur and Admiral Nimitz that they couldn’t deploy the Marines or aircraft carriers—or else be called a bad name—and our leaders complied. Wars are not won by surrendering your most effective weapons. Sometimes the forbidden word is le mot juste. It says exactly what needs to be said—and with style.

Take the word RETARD. I enjoy it mostly because I’m told I can’t say it. I use it sparingly, but with precision.  

Donald Trump used it to describe Tim Walz.

He didn’t apply it cruelly to a child with Down syndrome, yet the MSM and the Left lost their minds. Heads exploded. It was glorious.

The Somali community managed to pull off a $9 billion scam right under Tim Walz’s nose.

“Tampon Tim” claims ignorance. If that’s true, there is no more accurate word in the English language than retard.

Speech codes lead to national self-destruction. Truth—especially when delivered in sharp, colorful tones—is the best weapon in the war of woke insanity.

Tyler Durden Wed, 01/07/2026 - 12:15