Thursday

Stocks slipped today as jitters set in ahead of quarterly earnings reports and monthly jobs data, but better-than-expected employment and retail-sales numbers limited the decline. Weekly jobs data released Thursday showed the number of U.S. workers filing new claims for jobless benefits unexpectedly fell last week to their lowest level since July 10th. Expectations are for the government on Friday to report fewer payroll cuts than reported in August, although they still anticipate a decrease of about 10,000 U.S. jobs and a slight rise in unemployment. I guess now, we just wait and see! DJIA -19.07 Nasdaq +3.01 S&P 500 -1.91.