Despite the uptick, the December effort came in just a tad below consensus estimates of 50.5%, according to forecasts provided by Briefing.com.

New orders continued expanding, albeit at a slower pace, than the previous month. The separate read on new orders registered 52.1% in December compared to a 55.1% showing in November.

The report’s business activity index, however, improved to 53.7% after reading 49.6% in the prior month.

With market observers bracing for the Labor Department’s nonfarm payrolls report on Friday, Wednesday’s services sector report also showed some improvement in that labor market. The employment index continued hinting at contraction, though it improved to 44% in December from 41.6% in November. That followed an early morning report showing private sector employers shed 84,000 jobs last month, the smallest number of losses since March 2008.

Stocks were mixed after the report’s release, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average adding 3 points to 10,575 and the S&P 500 declining 1 point to 1135.

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