STOCKS closed mixed yesterday, with the Dow Jones industrials trading a touch lower with bond prices ahead of unemployment statistics for March.
Trading in both markets was very quiet ahead of today's scheduled March unemployment and job creation data. The markets are particularly anxious about these numbers because a huge run up in February job creation caused a 171 point drop in the Dow on March 8th.
Declining issues outnumbered advancers by 1,197 to 1,066 on the New York Stock Exchange, with 827 unchanged.
Big Board volume totalled 382.01 million shares, against 386.54 million in the previous session.
The NYSE's composite index rose 0.11 to 351.92. The Standard and Poor's 500 stock index fell 0.02 to 655.86.
At the American Stock Exchange, the market value index rose 2.78 to 577.10.
