The Most Ridiculous Seasonal Adjustment You'll Ever See

Moments ago, in an attempt to put some lipstick on what as we previously showed was a very poor ISM (and Markit) Service PMI, Goldman focused on the only silver lining it could find: employment. This is what Goldman's Kris Dawsey just said: "However, employment continued to rise to a very strong level (+1.1pt to 59.6). The employment index now stands close to the series high of 60.2 set in August 2005, a favorable indicator for Friday's employment report. Prices paid moved down (-3.1pt to 52.1), mirroring the decline seen in the ISM manufacturing report released earlier this week. Despite the headline miss, today's ISM nonmanufacturing report is consistent with a solid pace of expansion in service sector activity. "