The numbers: A few surveys of US companies on Wednesday added further evidence that the economy is slowing after a record outbreak of the coronavirus.
IHS Markit said his “flash” survey of executives at service-oriented companies such as restaurants, financials and healthcare providers fell to 55.3 this month from 58.4 in November.
While any number over 50 signals expansion, it was the weakest value in three months.
A similar survey of manufacturers fell from 56.7 to 56.5.
What happened: Service companies whose business requires a lot of interaction with customers have again been hit hard by increasing government restrictions on opening hours or the number of customers allowed to enter stores.
For example, sales in restaurants in November showed the largest drop in seven months.
Read: Retail sales were down 1.1% in November as COVID-19 takes a hit on restaurants and the economy
Other retailers, hotels and entertainment venues are among the other sectors at risk.
Manufacturers reported a much smaller delay. They are better insulated from the damage caused by the coronavirus because they have more control over their work environment and do not deal directly with customers.
Manufacturers also dropped their inventories to very low levels during the first six months of the pandemic. They need to rebuild them in anticipation of a pick-up in the economy in 2021, analysts say, as vaccines become more widespread.
Big picture: There is no doubt that the coronavirus pandemic took another bite out of the US economy in the fall, but the damage is nowhere near as severe as last spring.
How bad it gets depends on how quickly the latest outbreak is under control and how quickly the vaccines are rolled out. The next two months don’t look good.
What do they say? “While vaccine developments mean that some of the cloud caused by the pandemic should rise over the course of 2021, rising numbers of cases continue to obscure the near-term outlook,” said Chris Williamson, chief business economist at IHS Markit .
“In particular, resurgent virus numbers have been cited as a key factor behind a decline in hiring, suggesting that the labor market has cooled amid increasing employers’ caution.”
Market reaction: The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA,
fell slightly, but the S&P 500 SPX,
There has been a slight increase in recent trading.