Stock Market Update

[BRIEFING.COM]  The market moved lower over the last half hour, but moves in either direction are limited.

The ISM Services PMI edged up to 51.5% in August (Briefing.com consensus 51.0%) from 51.4% in July. The dividing line between expansion and contraction is 50.0%, so the August reading reflects services sector activity expanding at nearly the same pace as July.

The key takeaway from the report is that overall activity in the largest sector of the U.S. economy remains in an expansion mode, which is what the market, worried about a possible hard landing, wants to see. Slow to moderate growth, the report said, was noted across many industries.