Yesterday the market was way up on new hopes for Greece, today the Dow just modestly down 28 points on new worries, even though really nothing has changed.  The PM is still calling for the Sunday referendum hoping that the Greek people will vote the EU down and that will force the creditors into mild concessions that he would accept.  And Germany is still rebuffing all further dialogue until after Sunday in the hopes that the leftist government will get the boot. Who's going to blink?  Whoever it is, the other EU countries seem to be more pro-Greek than anti as they too have been resentful of the austerity programs Germany has forced upon them.  Greece has sort of become a modern anti-hero in the annals of EU high finance.  Meanwhile, U.S. payrolls came in 7,000 fewer than expected, which isn't much but still called a drag responsible for today's dip.  Instead of taking this as bad news, investors should be lauding the extra 223,000 jobs and asking on what basis forecasters thought it should have been more.  Well, that's the way Wall Street works.  Regardless it doesn't mean much since everyone's blown town for the holiday weekend.  Volume was very light at 5.5 billion.

Markets | Thu Jul 2, 2015 4:56pm EDT

Wall St. edged down on Greece worries, tepid U.S. data

BY SINEAD CAREW

DJ:    17,730.11  -27.80      NAS:      5,009.21  -3.91         S&P:      2,076.78  -0.64

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(Reuters)  U.S. stocks closed down slightly on Thursday after the International Monetary Fund warned Greece ahead of its Sunday referendum that it faces a huge financial hole, and mixed jobs data dampened the U.S. economic outlook.

While the IMF was warning that Greece needed an extra 50 billion euros over the next three years to stay afloat, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras was urging voters to reject a bailout offer from lenders and saying he hoped to sign a new deal on Monday.

“Given the referendum on Sunday in Greece and the holiday weekend, at least for today the action was somewhat muted compared to the rest of the week.” Michael Arone, chief investment strategist for State Street Global Advisors' U.S. Intermediary Business.

Trading volume remained low ahead of a long weekend. U.S. markets will not open on Friday in observance the Independence Day holiday.

Slowing U.S. job growth in June tempered expectations for a Federal Reserve interest rate increase in September.

Nonfarm payrolls increased 223,000 last month, below the 230,000 expected by economists polled by Reuters, while average hourly earnings were unchanged in June, taking the year-on-year increase to a paltry 2.0 percent.

The Fed has said it will raise rates only when data shows a sustained economic recovery.

The utilities sector .SPLRCU was the best performer in the S&P, rising 1.4 percent. That sector has been battered by a 10.6 percent decline so far this year as investors have been switching positions in anticipation of an interest rate increase.

Investors also faced uncertainty over volatility in China's stock markets and a debt crisis in Puerto Rico.

"There's not enough certainty to be taking long positions going into the holiday weekend," Richard Weeks, managing director at High Tower Advisors in Vienna, Virginia.

The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI fell 27.8 points, or 0.16 percent, to 17,730.11; the S&P 500 .SPX dipped 0.64 points, or 0.03 percent, to 2,076.78, and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC dropped 3.91 points, or 0.08 percent, to 5,009.21.

All three indexes fell for the week, with the S&P 500's decline the biggest since March. The Dow had its biggest weekly decline since April, while the Nasdaq had its biggest weekly decline since early May

BP's U.S.-listed shares (BP.N) rose 5 percent to $41.29 after the company agreed to settle claims from the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill for $18.7 billion.

Xoom Corp (XOOM.O) shares rose 21 percent to $25.05 after PayPal, which is slated to separate from eBay (EBAY.O) later this month, said it would buy the digital money transfer provider. EBay rose 2.4 percent.

Western Union (WU.N), the S&P's biggest percentage loser, fell 6.9 percent to $18.99 after Evercore ISI cut its rating on the stock to "hold" from "buy," citing the Xoom deal.

Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by 1,536 to 1,516, for a 1.01-to-1 ratio on the upside; on the Nasdaq, 1,761 issues fell and 1,015 advanced for a 1.73-to-1 ratio favoring decliners.

The benchmark S&P 500 index was posting 17 new 52-week highs and 9 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite was recording 48 new highs and 80 new lows.

About 5.5 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges, compared with the 7.6 billion average for the last five sessions, according to data from BATS Global Markets.