Today everyone took a little hit and this is why.  Tuesday it was all jitters about Greece missing their debt payment.  And the Dow plummeted.  Yesterday Greece said a deal was imminent and everyone listened to that story even though the EU denied it.  And the Dow shot way up.  Today everyone is listening to the EU belying Greece's claim that there would be a deal by week's end.  But at least the two stories are getting a little closer together -- Greece says a deal by Sunday, the EU says it must be Friday or it's off.  The EU has tried posturing like this before and then blinked.  This is likely the reason the Dow only got hit by 36 points.  Volume was again very light - 5.7 billion - probably because everyone's waiting for tomorrow's GDP report.  This will be the first since the weak Q1 data so it will be important.  Stay tuned.

Markets | Thu May 28, 2015 4:42pm EDT

Wall St. inches down on Greece, China worries

BY CAROLINE VALETKEVITCH

DJ:    18,126.12  -36.87     NAS:      5,097.98  -8.62        S&P:      2,120.79  -2.69

REUTERS/LUCAS JACKSON

U.S. stocks eased on Thursday as mixed messages about Greece's debt talks kept investor uncertainty high along with a sharp drop in Chinese shares after brokers tightened margin rules.

Seven of the 10 major S&P 500 sectors were lower, with the industrials sector .SPLRCI falling the most, 0.4 percent, a day after the Nasdaq closed at a record high.

International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde said there was still a lot of work to do before Greece and its international lenders could clinch a cash-for-reforms deal.

Greece's government said it aims to reach an agreement with lenders by Sunday. A euro zone official said Greece will not be able to get the money still available under its current bailout plan if it does not agree to the outline of a such a deal by the end of the week.

"Everybody is coming out with a different story. I'm looking for an EU-endorsed comment rather than something coming from Greece to be sort of the final arbiter on what the sentiment really is with regard to a resolution," said Mark Luschini, chief investment strategist at Janney Montgomery Scott in Philadelphia, which manages about $67 billion in assets.

Shares of Caterpillar (CAT.N) fell 2.2 percent to $86.01 and helped to drag down the S&P 500 and Dow, while shares of transportation companies extended recent losses. The Dow Jones transportation average .DJT was down 0.9 percent.

The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI fell 36.87 points, or 0.2 percent, to 18,126.12, theS&P 500 .SPX lost 2.69 points, or 0.13 percent, to 2,120.79 and the Nasdaq Composite.IXIC dropped 8.62 points, or 0.17 percent, to 5,097.98.

In China, indexes plummeted 6 percent after more brokerages tightened margin trading requirements in a move seen aimed at curbing risks in a red-hot market.

Investors also were cautious ahead of Friday's reading on U.S. gross domestic product.

Among gainers, action camera maker GoPro Inc (GPRO.O) rose 6.6 percent to $56.81 after GoPro and Google Inc (GOOGL.O) introduced a virtual reality system using 16 cameras and Google software. Google shares were near flat at $554.18.

Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by 1,756 to 1,282, for a 1.37-to-1 ratio on the downside; on the Nasdaq, 1,468 issues fell and 1,277 advanced for a 1.15-to-1 ratio favoring decliners.

The S&P 500 posted 16 new 52-week highs and seven new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 85 new highs and 45 new lows.

About 5.7 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges, below the 6.2 billion daily average for the month to date, according to BATS Global Markets.