Business at U.S. service companies picked up sharply in July, and executives grew more optimistic about the months ahead, surveys released Wednesday showed, a sign the economy entered the second half of the year on firmer footing than expected.
The service sector—restaurants, banks, hospitals, truckers, software firms and the rest of the roughly two-thirds of the economy that doesn’t make physical products—grew at its fastest pace in nine months, according to S&P Global. Its index of services activity rose to 54.6 from 51.2 in June. Any reading above 50 signals growth.
The figure came in stronger than the preliminary estimate S&P Global published two weeks ago, which had put the...
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