Gary Poster, with essential assists from Galyn Norwood, Phiroon Phihakendr, Jose Quijada, Pavandeep Kalra.
Stocks end mixed, even in the face of scary economic data.
Looks that way, and it's not a good sign. One of the few reasons that Alan Greenspan has been able to keep his cool, even as the economy has stampeded along, has been the increasing productivity of American workers. As long as worker bees crank out more output per hour, manufacturers don't feel the need to raise prices. Thus, we've been able to shake off strong GDP numbers and rising labor costs. So today's numbers from the Labor Department gave investors a little pause.