US markets end slightly lower on Friday

06 Jul 2019 Evaluate

The US markets ended slightly lower on Friday, but recovered from day’s low points, after the monthly government payrolls report estimated the economy added a better-than-expected 224,000 jobs in June, reducing the chances of multiple Federal Reserve rate cuts by the end of the year. The Labor Department report showed a substantial reacceleration in the pace of US job growth in the month of June. The report said employment surged up by 224,000 jobs in June after edging up 72,000 jobs in May. Street had expected employment to increase by about 160,000 jobs. While the data points to a rebound in the labor market following the weakness seen in May, the report dampened investor hopes for a near-term interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve.

Despite the stronger than expected job growth, the report said the unemployment rate inched up to 3.7 percent in June from 3.6 percent in May. The unemployment rate had been expected to hold steady. The uptick in the unemployment rate reflected an increase in the size of the labor force, which expanded by 335,000 people compared to the 247,000-person jump in the household survey measure of employment. Besides, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell sits down for two days of Congressional testimony and the central bank releases the minutes of its latest monetary policy meeting in the next week. Investors will be also looking ahead for the reports on consumer and producer price inflation for further direction.

Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 43.88 points or 0.16 percent to 26922.12, Nasdaq fell 8.44 points or 0.10 percent to 8161.79 and S&P 500 was down by 5.41 points or 0.18 percent to 2990.41.

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