Weak economic data put stock market rally on hold
NEW YORK - The closer investors get to the government's July employment report, the more cautious they become. Stocks slipped Wednesday as investors shied from making big moves ahead of the government's monthly reading on job losses and the unemployment rate, which comes out before the start of trading on Friday. The pullback, which took the Dow Jones industrials down 39 points, followed a 34-point gain Tuesday that was a slowdown from the previous day's triple-digit advance. The big concern on Wall Street is layoffs, and whether companies trying to preserve their profits during the recession are continuing to slash jobs at a furious pace. The caution in Wednesday's trading followed a disappointing report. The Institute for Supply Management said its service index, a measure of the health of retail, financial services, transportation and health care companies, fell to 46.4 in July from 47 in June.
