Their report on job activity in the service sector is the weakest it has been in over a year:

The pace of growth in the services sector ticked down unexpectedly in July to the lowest level since February 2010 and the number of jobs created by the private sector also slowed, reports showed on Wednesday.

Taken alongside disappointing data on the manufacturing sector earlier in the week, the services data showed an economy that was frustrating hopes for a rebound in the second half of the year after a very weak first half.

“It looks like this confirms that we are in a bit of a soft patch here,” said Rudy Narvas, senior economist at Societe Generale in New York.

Gee Rudy, you think?

It’s getting to be a habit:  The economy looks a little bit better, Washington declares victory on the recession, backs off, and we slide back into the abyss.

It’s 1937 over, and over, and over, and over, again.