YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: Not much has changed over the course of the afternoon, with quiet trading conditions ahead of tomorrow's employment report. As mentioned earlier, equities started the day lower despite some better-than-expected employment data and central bank easing in Europe and China. Stocks made lows a half-hour after the open on slightly worse than expected ISM services data, but managed to show some improvement off the lows, with the retail and technology sectors outperforming throughout the day.

To recap the central bank activity this morning, China cut interest rates for the second time in a month and the Bank of England expanded its asset purchase program. Then the ECB cut rates by 0.25%. The Bank of England and ECB moves were in-line with expectations, so the biggest surprise this morning was China's rate cut. However, many had expected China to continue to ease, so while the timing may be surprising, the policy move itself isn't.

In U.S. economic data, the June ADP Employment reading helped futures move back into positive territory, as it showed an increase of 176K jobs from May to June on a seasonally adjusted basis. This was much better than the 105K Briefing.com consensus. However, markets saw little reaction to the weekly initial jobless claims reading of 374K, which was better than the 385K Briefing.com consensus. The ISM services index was reported at 52.1, which was slightly below the 53.0 Briefing.com consensus, and a decline from May's 53.7 reading.

European markets turned negative following ECB and BoE actions that were generally in-line with expectations. The euro weakened in the wake of the ECB rate cut and with a lowered growth outlook from ECB President Draghi. Germany's DAX finished down 0.5% while the UK's FTSE finished marginally higher by 0.1%.

In Asia, China's Shanghai Composite underperformed with a 1.2% decline, while Japan's Nikkei fell 0.3% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 0.5%. Those markets were closed prior to the Chinese rate cut.

Retailers are one of the strongest sectors in the market, gaining more than 1% on average vs. a 0.5% decline in the broader market despite weaker than expected June comparable store sales results. Of the 20 that have reported, 14 retailers missed expectations while six beat. This is the largest number of misses since last May.

The technology sector was also an area of strength, with a 0.1% gain in the Nasdaq 100 vs. the 0.5% loss in the broader market. The biggest gainer in the Nasdaq 100 is Netflix (NFLX 81.72, +9.68), which closed +13% after the company's CEO said its streaming service had its highest month of content consumption. A 2% gain in Apple (AAPL 609.94, +10.53) also helped the tech sector.

On the other hand, Financials (XLF, 14.59 -0.22) underperformed. Part of the weakness was attributed to the shadow cast by the Barclay's LIBOR probe. British officials are reportedly investigating multiple large banks for rate manipulation. JPMorgan (JPM 34.38, -1.50) was a notable laggard.

An advance by the dollar following central bank easing in Europe and China and better-than-expected employment data put pressure on precious metals and crude oil during today's pit trade. Gold tumbled to a pit session low of $1598.40 per ounce but was able to erase some losses as it inched slightly higher for the remainder of its session. It ultimately finished 0.7% lower at $1609.90 per ounce.

Silver also inched higher after sliding to a floor session low of $27.53 per ounce and eventually settled at $27.68 per ounce, or 2.2% lower. Crude oil fell to a session low of $86.58 per barrel, but stronger-than-anticipated inventory data that showed a draw of 4.27 mln barrels when a draw of 2.3 mln barrels was expected briefly pushed prices into positive territory to a session high of $88.06 per barrel.

The energy component pulled-back slightly in afternoon action and settled 0.7% lower at $87.13 per barrel... Natural gas, on the other hand, spent most of its floor session in the black. A rally heading into the close pushed prices higher so that nat gas settled with a 1.4% gain at $2.94 per MMBtu, just below its session high of $2.95 per MMBtu.

Volume was below average. However, there is the potential for heavier trading around tomorrow's June nonfarm payrolls report before the open, which is expected to show an increase of around 100K.DJ30 -47.15 NASDAQ 0.04 SP500 -6.44 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1149/1.37 bln/1336 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1329/684 mln/1695