The US markets closed mostly lower on Friday as investors reacted negatively to the Labor Department's closely watched monthly jobs report. While a bigger than expected increase in employment contributed to a drop in the unemployment rate, the report also showed a slowdown in wage growth. The non-farm payroll employment climbed by 252,000 jobs in December compared to economist estimates for an increase of about 245,000 jobs. The stronger than expected job growth helped to push the unemployment rate down to a new six-year low of 5.6 percent. However, the annual rate of average hourly earnings growth slowed to 1.7 percent in December, the slowest rate of growth since October of 2012. The mixed data led to some uncertainty about the outlook for monetary policy, leading some traders to cash in on the recent gains. Negative sentiment was also generated by a pullback by the price of crude oil, which moved back to the downside after closing higher for two straight days.
Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 170.50 points or 0.95 percent to 17,737.37, S&P 500 dropped 0.84 points or 17.33 percent to 2,044.81 and Nasdaq declined by 32.12 points or 0.68 percent to 4,704.07.
Indian ADRs closed mostly in red on Friday; Tata Motors was down 0.91%, HDFC Bank was down 0.17% and ICICI Bank was down by 0.046%. Infosys was up 1.45% and Dr. Reddy’s Lab was up by 0.94%.