After disappointing reports last week on August job growth and manufacturing, a holiday-shortened, light week of economic news will highlight the economy’s bright spots: the service sector, consumer spending and the booming labor market in July.
The U.S. service sector generally has been insulated from the overseas economic weakness that has clobbered manufacturers’ exports and helped push factory activity back into contraction territory last month. The Institute for Supply Management’s (ISM) non-manufacturing index dipped in July but remained firmly in expansion mode.
