Each day the Research staff takes a look at recently released economic indicators, addressing what these indicators mean for REALTORS® and their clients. Today’s update discusses the ISM non-manufacturing index and gas prices.

  • The service sector notched its best showing in about a year.  The ISM non-manufacturing index, which essentially collects data from managers in the service industry, came in at 56.8 in February — the highest reading since March of last year.  The index reading of 50 implies expansion in the service industry.
  • The survey of mangers said business activity, new orders, and backlogs were all higher.  The biggest jump came in employment index, implying more aggressive hiring of people.
  • In separate data news, gasoline prices continue to move higher.  Though the West Texas Crude prices are $106 per barrel, the U.S. gasoline price tend to follow the pattern of London Brent Crude price, which today is at $123 per barrel.  The east coast refiners use a lot of Brent oil and not the Texas oil.  Hard to believe in hindsight that gasoline price were quite stable throughout the 1990s at about $1.00 to $1.25 per gallon.   High gas prices could easily hold back the pace of job creation in the second half of the year because more money spent at gas stations means less money to buy other things.