stocks closed mixed tuesday to kick off august with only the dow booking a modest advance among the three major indexes in lackluster trade that followed a blockbuster seven months of equity gains the dow jones industrial average djia rose about 71 points or 02 ending near 35630 according to preliminary factset data that saw the dow book a third session in a row of gains while the sp 500 index spx shed 03 and the nasdaq composite index comp fell 04 stocks appeared to be taking a breather after roaring higher in the first seven months of 2023 with both the dow and sp 500 less than 5 off record territory touched in early 2022 investors were focused on jobs data due thursday and a key monthly reading on the labor market friday a strong labor market has been credited with helping keep the us economy out of a recession which until recent months felt nearly unavoidable as the federal reserve continued to quickly jack up rates on the flip side strong wage gains continue to fuel consumption by households and have kept upward pressure on prices and the fed’s shortterm rates which in july touched the highest level in 22 years a heated labor market potentially will mean even more fed hikes to come which could eventually derail the economy hurt corporate profits and pull stocks lower investors also will be keeping an eye on a “tsunami” of treasury issuance expected through year end and if it potentially might shake up financial markets the 10year treasury yield tmubmusd10y was around 403 on tuesday