i m julia boorstin with your cnbc market wrap. the dow jones industrials falling nine points, the s&p 500 up half a point and the nasdaq finishing pretty much flat. a lackluster beige book from the federal reserve offsetting encouraging numbers from professors in the service sector. as expected the fed said february snowstorms put a big crimp in the pace of recovery. the beige book shows the economy is growing but not fast enough to spur increased hiring. private employers cut 20,000 johns in february, lower than january s numbers and employers are moving away from down sizing as the recovery takes hold. the storms are expected to impact the government report due out friday. meanwhile the service sector continues to expand. the sim gouge climbing to 53 in february, its highest mark in three years.
we re left to hope that somehow american policies of down-sizing and disengagement will turn out better than they have in the past. maybe white house officials look through things through a political prism, if the president was to step up and do more, how do you think the american people would receive that and how do you think it would sit. i think it would be up to him to make the sale. america is said to be war weary and at all times it s war wary. it falls to president and really only to presidents to make the case for u.s. involvement in overseas conflicts. unless we ve been immediately attacked, such as pearl harbor or 9/11, the public appetite has never been very high. when a president does as george