BUSINESS NEWS FEBRUARY 3RD 2016
U.S. SERVICE SECTOR GROWTH DECLINES
U.S. stocks staged a late-day rally to end higher as an 8% jump in oil futures drove up beaten-down energy shares. In some economic data...companies in the U.S. service sector such as retail, banking & health care grew in January at the slowest pace in almost two years. The Institute for Supply Management said its non-manufacturing index fell to 53.5% from 55.8% in December. Any number over 50% indicates more businesses are expanding instead of contracting. The slowdown suggests that weakness among energy producers, manufacturers & major exporters may have spread to the much larger service side of the economy
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U.S. PRIVATE SECTOR RECORDS STRONG JOB GAINS
Private-sector hiring in the U.S. increased at a slower pace in January than in December. However the figures are still above analyst estimates. Employers added 205,000 private-sector jobs in January compared with 267,000 in December. Despite job cuts in the manufacturing & energy sector, job gains across other sectors is robust. Service employment was very strong, adding 192,000 jobs in January.
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CHINA EXPECTS GROWTH TO BE AT 6.5-7%
China's target for economic growth this year remains in a range of 6.5-7%. This is the first time in two decades that the country has expressed its economic target in a range, instead of a single number. The new target is an acknowledgement that expansion will continue to weaken. Growth in the world's second-largest economy declined to 6.9% last year.
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COMCAST LOSES FEWEST CUSTOMERS IN 8 YEARS
Comcast has added 89,000 TV customers in the last three months of 2015. The current quarter was the best for the firm since the October-December period of 2006. For the full year, Comcast lost 36,000 TV customers; the smallest drop since 2007. Comcast is stemming losses by luring customers with new TV-Internet packages. Comcast has seen its Internet-access business grow. It added 1.4 mn internet customers in 2015, including 460,000 in the October-December quarter.
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