Thursday

Well, today marks the beginning of the third quarter of 2010. We were off to a bit of a rough start this morning, but things got a little better towards the closing bell. U.S. stocks reduced losses from earlier in the session, but they couldn't quite climb out of the red, as disappointing housing and jobs data weighed on the market preceding Friday's key payroll report. The weak U.S. data only added to investor concerns about the pace of global growth and how it might be impacted by debt worries in the euro zone and the prospect of slower growth in China. Those factors were prevalent in the second quarter, during which the Dow dropped 10%, snapping a four-quarter winning streak. In other markets, the euro gained sharply against the dollar on a successful Spanish government bond auction, which sparked confidence in the region's banking system. DJIA -41.49 Nasdaq -7.88 S&P 500 -3.34.