Economic activity in the services sector fell in November from its October levels, according to the Institute of Supply Management's (ISM) Services Purchasing Managers Index (PMI). Services economic activity remains expansionary despite the month-over-month dip. Natixis CIB Americas chief US economist Christopher Hodge joins Seana Smith and Madison Mills on Catalysts to break down the data and what it signals about the US economy.

"This number is a little bit lower than it was a month prior and a little bit lower than what was forecast, but this is still an expansionary territory," Hodge says, adding, "This mirrors the economy overall."

"The higher print for the price is paid, that should be a little bit concerning to the Fed because that does confirm a theme that we've seen over the past few months of progress on inflation stagnating a bit," he notes.

The economist says, "I don't see much of a risk of inflation accelerating back up to 3%, but I do think that there's a significant risk that inflation plateaus at a level uncomfortably above target for the Fed. This has been expressed in some of the Fed speak that we've seen over the past few months, and we do think that the Fed is still on track to cut at the December meeting, but we think it's going to be a hawkish cut. We think Powell is going to signal that the tempo of cuts in 2025 is going to slow a little bit."

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This post was written by Naomi Buchanan.