The US markets ended deeply in red on Friday, with Nasdaq settling around cut of four percent, following the release of the Labor Department's closely watched monthly jobs report, which failed to ease concerns about the outlook for interest rates. The report showed US job growth slowed in the month of September but still came in slightly stronger than street had anticipated. The report showed non-farm payroll employment jumped by 263,000 jobs in September after surging by an unrevised 315,000 jobs in August and spiking by an upwardly revised 537,000 jobs in July. Street had expected employment to leap by 250,000 jobs. The slightly stronger than expected job growth reflected notable increases in employment in the leisure and hospitality and healthcare sectors, which added 83,000 jobs and 75,400 jobs, respectively. Street noted the job growth was even stronger excluding a drop in state and local government education payrolls, which reflected shifting seasonal patterns in teacher hiring.
Besides, a sales warning from Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) also weighed on the markets, with the chipmaker plummeting by 13.9 percent. On the sectoral front, semiconductor stocks helped lead the markets lower following the warning from AMD, dragging the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index down by 6.1 percent. The warning also contributed to considerable weakness among computer hardware stocks, resulting in a 4.2 percent plunge by the NYSE Arca Computer Hardware Index. Substantial weakness was also visible among gold stocks, as reflected by the 4.6 percent nosedive by the NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index. The sell-off by gold stocks came amid a decrease by the price of the precious metal, with gold for December delivery falling $11.50 to $1,709.30 an ounce.
Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 630.15 points or 2.11 percent to 29,296.79, Nasdaq dropped 420.91 points or 3.8 percent to 10,652.41 and S&P 500 was down by 104.86 points 2.8 percent to 3,639.66.
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