Dow Watch: Tumbleweeds and Tourists

(At 4:30 p.m. EDT)

The Dow halved its gains, but still managed to finish higher on the day. As I said in an earlier update, a 100-point gain on the blue chip index would be a surprise, considering the fact that the government will post its nonfarm payrolls report Thursday.

As Friday is a market holiday, it'll be worth keeping an eye on volume Thursday, considering everyone will be rushing out the door for the beach. Volume has petered out as the short week has crawled along. At 3 p.m. EDT today, volume was about 13% lower than it was on Tuesday. At this rate, tumbleweeds and tourists will be all that remain on Wall Street at 3 p.m. EDT tomorrow.

Only six Dow stocks finished in the red Wednesday, lead by a decline in financial stocks like American Express (AXP Quote), Bank of America (BAC Quote) and JPMorgan Chase (JPM Quote). As mentioned earlier, Pfizer (PFE Quote) was another laggard. ...