US Final January Markit Services PMI Surges Above Expectation

According to the final version of IHS Markit’s Services PMI survey, the headline index was 51.2 in January, above the flash estimate for a 50.9 reading. The final Composite PMI came in 51.1 in January, also above the flash reading of 50.8.


January US PMI Composite Index (Final): 51.1 vs. 50.8 consensus and 57.0 prior. The upturn was the slowest since July 2020 as manufacturers and service providers registered a considerable slowdown in growth momentum.

The expansion in new business also softened, but remained solid overall. Cost pressures eased in January, as the pace of input price inflation softened to the slowest since March 2021. The rate of output charge inflation, however, was broadly unchanged from December, and marked overall.

Service Index: 51.2 vs. 50.9 consensus, 57.6 prior, but up slightly on the earlier released ‘flash’ figure of 50.9. The upturn in business activity was muted in the context of marked expansions seen throughout 2021, as the spread of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 hampered business operations and demand conditions weakened. The rise in output was the slowest in the current sequence of growth which began in August 2020.