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U.S. Department of Labor

Stocks end slightly down on mixed jobs data, Greece

Jane Onyanga-Omara
USA TODAY
Trader Daniel Kryger works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Tuesday, June 30, 2015.

Stocks ended slightly lower Thursday as investors reacted to a mixed jobs report and await the results of Sunday's bailout referendum in Greece.

The Dow Jones industrial average ended down 0.2%, a 28-point shave to 17,730.11.

Losing 0.1% was the Nasdaq composite, which remained above 5000 on the 4-point loss, settling at 5009.21. The S&P 500 shed a fractional 0.03% to end at 2076.78.

All three benchmarks slid over the course of the shortened week, with a trading holiday slated for Friday, in advance of July 4 on Saturday.

The June employment report showed solid, but lower-than-expected job gains and slowing wage growth.

Employers added 223,000 jobs and the unemployment rate dropped from 5.5% to 5.3% in June, the Labor Department reported. It was the second straight month of 200,000-plus jobs created but came in below economists' expectations of 230,000.

Wage growth slowed after showing signs of a pickup the previous month as average hourly earnings were unchanged at $24.95 in June.

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The big story of the week in financial markets has been the Greece debt crisis and the breakdown in negotiations between the Athens government and its eurozone creditors. The impasse resulted in Greece shuttering its banks and stock market and its decision not to pay a roughly $1.7 billion loan payment to one of its lenders, the International Monetary Fund.

Greece's European creditors have said there will be no new negotiations until after the July 5 referendum, when everyday Greeks get to decide whether to accept onerous bailout terms from the financial institutions that are their cash lifeline, or vote no and risk getting tossed out of the eurozone and suffering untold economic pain.

Investors it seems don't want to make any big bets, either, until the Greek populace has spoken.

"I think it's a wait-and-see," says Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at BMO Private Bank.

European shares were mostly lower as Germany's DAX was down 0.7% and France's CAC 40 dropped 1%. Britain's FTSE 100 index gained 0.3%.

In Asia, Japan's Nikkei 225 rose 1% to 20,522.50 while Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 0.1%. The Shanghai Composite, which has been volatile recently, lost 3.5%.

U.S. and European stocks rose Wednesday after a leaked letter from Greece's government to eurozone officials appeared to show that Athens was ready to concede to creditor demands over new bailout terms.

Contributing: Adam Shell, Paul Davidson

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