Dow Falls in Advance of Jobs Report
Blue-chip stocks closed sharply lower today as nervous investors sold shares before Friday's important July employment report.</br></br>The market fears that a stronger-than-expected jobs report could prod the Federal Reserve into raising interest rates for the fifth time this year.</br></br>The Dow Jones industrial average fell 26.87 points to 3765.79. In the broader market, declining issues outnumbered advancing ones by 4 to 3 on New York Stock Exchange volume of more than 289 million shares.</br></br>"More and more people are just saying, `Let me stay out of it today and wait till tomorrow's numbers,' " said Leon Brand, global market strategist at NatWest Securities.</br></br>Economists in a Reuter news service survey said they expect July payrolls to increase by 204,000, compared with a rise of 379,000 in June. They see the unemployment rate at 6.1 percent vs. 6.0 percent.