Service Sector Expands More Rapidly Than Expected

The ISM Services Index number for February has been released, and it's the highest it's been in more than two years. The expected number was 51.0; the real number was 53.0, making for a large jump from January's 50.5.

That number made for a pop in the U.S. Dollar Index, which rose from just above 80.21 to almost 80.36 in the space of five minutes. Since then, though, the Index has trended down after making a double top as of 10:11. In and of itself, good economic news doesn't seem to have had much of an effect on the greenback. Gold got knocked down more than four dollars an ounce, to about $1,135.50, but the first half of that decline started before the number was released.