Instant View: Service sector growth slows in April

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The pace of growth in the U.S. services sector unexpectedly eased in April, according to an industry report released on Wednesday.

KEY POINTS:

COMMENTS:

TOM PORCELLI, CHIEF U.S. ECONOMIST, RBC CAPITAL MARKETS, NEW YORK

"We're surprised at the weakness in service activity, we did not expect it would pullback this month, we are at the lowest in multiple months. It's very surprising, new orders fell sharply, employment, all the underlying numbers you would want to hold up, didn't. It's a disappointing report."

"I think it's a little too early to say this is the beginning of a meaningful softening in activity, but this also means that the employment report on Friday gets even greater emphasis. You're going to need something to refute the utter weakness from this report."

PIERRE ELLIS, SENIOR ECONOMIST, DECISION ECONOMICS, NEW YORK

MARKET REACTION:

STOCKS: U.S. stocks add to losses.

BONDS: U.S. bond prices extend gains.

FOREX: The dollar extends losses versus yen, hits session lows versus euro