Wall Street Journal (06/05/13) Kathleen Madigan
The Institute for Supply Management’s nonmanufacturing purchasing managers index increased slightly to 53.7 in May from 53.1 in April, but is still lower than March’s 54.4 reading. The subindexes were mixed. New orders rose to 56.0 in May from 54.5 in April, and business activity and production increased to 56.5 from 55.0. However, the employment index dropped to 50.1 from 52.0, which is the weakest since July 2012. The inventory index dropped to 51.5 from 56.0 in April. The prices index remained steady, down slightly to 51.1 from 51.2.