Stocks in U.S. Pare Gains as Service Industry Data Offset Payrolls Growth

U.S. stocks pared gains as slower- than-forecast growth in service industries wiped out most of an early rally triggered by better-than-estimated growth in private payrolls.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index climbed 0.5 percent to 1,095.93 at 11:03 a.m. in New York after earlier rallying as much as 1.4 percent. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 52.15 points, or 0.5 percent, to 10,372.25, trimming a 131-point advance.

“The economy isn’t falling off the cliff, but the non- manufacturing ISM number tells us it’s not great either,” said Sarah Hunt, research analyst at Alpine Mutual Funds in Purchase, New York. Alpine oversees about $6.5 billion. “There’s a lot of hot and cold investor psychology as we get different data points. Most of our economy is in the service sector, so maybe people are thinking things are still muddling through after all.”

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