the numbers an ism barometer of business conditions at serviceoriented companies such as restaurants and theaters rose 18 points in march to 583 rebounding from an omicroninduced slowdown prices of supplies rose even faster however and indicated little relief from high inflation supplychain bottlenecks also persisted still the increase last month broke a string of three straight declines in the institute for supply management’s services index  economists polled by the wall street journal had forecast a reading of 583 numbers over 50 are viewed as positive for the economy and anything over 55 is considered exceptional a similar ism survey of manufacturers showed that growth slowed a bit in march but not enough to set all any alarm bells the war in ukraine added to the uncertainty for manufacturers many of which are major exporters most service companies are not big exporters big picture the scores of serviceproviding companies that dominate the modern us economy have gotten a lift from the decline in coronavirus cases and removal of government restrictions people are going out more to eat shop or entertain themselves yet companies are still struggling with shortages of labor and supplies and can’t always keep up with customer demand these problems have contributed to the highest us inflation in 40 years and are not expected to ease quickly market reaction the dow jones industrial average djia rose in tuesday trades and sp 500 spx was down slightly