Stock Market Update

[BRIEFING.COM] The market continues to drop. The S&P 500 is more than 230 points lower, or 4.1%.

The ISM Services PMI decreased to 50.8% in March (Briefing.com consensus 53.2%) from 53.5% in February. The dividing line between expansion and contraction is 50.0%, so the March reading reflects services sector activity expanding but at a slower pace than what was seen in the prior month. March marked the 55th time in 58 months that the Services PMI indicated expansion.

The key takeaway from the report is that growth in the services sector slowed notably in March with employment contracting for the first time since September.

Treasury yields were already sharply lower before the data. The 10-yr yield is down 16 basis points to 4.04% and the 2-yr yield is down 17 basis points to 3.73%.