Global services improve in July

A report from the euro area on Monday showed that retail sales fell 0.5 percent in June, the first decline in three months.

Notwithstanding that report, results of global purchasing managers surveys in the services sector released on Monday were mostly quite positive.

In the euro area, Markit's services index for the euro area rose to 49.8 in July from 48.3 in June. This helped push the composite index up to 50.5 from 48.7, the first time it has risen above 50 since January 2012.

In the UK, the Markit/CIPS services PMI jumped to 60.2 in July, its highest level since December 2006, from 56.9 in June.

The Institute for Supply Management’s US non-manufacturing index also jumped to 56.0 in July from 52.2 in June.

In China, the HSBC/Markit services PMI stayed unchanged at 51.3 in July. Over the weekend, the government had reported that its non-manufacturing PMI rose to 54.1 last month from 53.9 in June.