The June US Services Purchasing Managers' Index conducted by Markit came in at 52.7 percent, down slightly from the final May estimate of 53.4.

Here is the opening from the latest press release:

"June saw signs of a broad-based weakening of the economy with demand now falling in both the manufacturing and service sectors. While the survey data point to a stalling of GDP at the end of the second quarter, a downshifting in the forward-looking new orders index and drop in companies' future output expectations hints at falling economic activity as we head through the summer. "Demand for goods and services from households is showing signs of moderating substantially due to the rising cost of living. Meanwhile, tighter financial conditions are starting to hit, and it was notable that the service sector slowdown was led by a steep drop in financial services activity. "Meanwhile there was welcome news in terms of a marked easing in upward price pressures, but it's clear that price growth remains elevated despite coming off recent peaks, all of which points to a bout of stagflation in the near term." [Press Release]

Here is a snapshot of the series since mid-2012.

Here is an overlay with the equivalent PMI survey conducted by the Institute for Supply Management, which they refer to as "Non-Manufacturing" (see our full article on this series here). Over its history, the ISM metric has been significantly the more volatile of the two.

The next chart uses a three-month moving average of the two rather volatile series to facilitate our understanding of the current trend. Since early in 2016, the ISM metric has shown stronger growth than the Markit counterpart.

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