US: Business activity continues to rise at historically subdued pace in April - Markit

"Growth of business activity was sustained in April, albeit at a relatively modest pace in line with fairly limited gains in new orders" said Markit on Wednesday.

Key quotes:

• With companies able to comfortably deal with current workloads, staffing levels rose at the slowest pace in nearly seven years
• The seasonally adjusted Markit U.S Services Business Activity Index continued to record above the crucial 50.0 no-change mark during April, registering 53.1, up from 52.8 in the previous month
• Growth in activity has now been recorded in each survey period since March 2016
• April’s rate of expansion was well down on the survey average, which in part reflected another month of relatively subdued growth in new business 
• Faced with under-whelming growth in new business, the vast majority of companies (90%) reported no-change to their workforce numbers during the month.