Stocks are mixed in U.S. trading in holiday-shortened week

investing.com:

Investing.com — U.S. stocks were mixed to start the holiday-shortened week as investors look to the Federal Reserve's policy meeting at the end of September.

At 11:23 ET (15:23 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 46 points or 0.1%, while the S&P 500 was down 0.1% and the NASDAQ Composite was up 0.1%.

Wall Street’s main equity indices recorded healthy gains last week before the three-day Labor Day holiday, with the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average adding 1.4% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite gaining 3.3%, their best weekly performances since July, while the broad-based S&P 500 rose 2.5%, its best week since June.

However, the investor sentiment has become more fragile as U.S. investors returned from their long weekend to further evidence of a slowdown in the global economy.

Chinese services sector activity grew at a slower-than-expected pace in August, with the Caixin services purchasing managers’ index offering up its weakest showing in eight months.

The news out of Europe was similarly bleak, with data showing that the decline in eurozone business activity accelerated faster than initially thought last month as the bloc's dominant services industry fell into contraction.

HCOB's final Composite Purchasing Managers' Index, compiled by S&P Global and seen as a good barometer of overall economic health, dropped to its lowest level since November 2020.

Factory orders for July fell 2.1%, beating expectations for a fall of 2.5% on the month, but the U.S. economy is still seen as the beacon of global hope.

Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) has turned more confident that the U.S. economy will avoid a massive contraction in the near term, lowering earlier Tuesday the probability that the country would fall into a