The US markets ended mostly in red on Friday following the release of the Labor Department's closely watched monthly jobs report, which showed stronger than expected job growth in the month of November. The report said non-farm payroll employment jumped by 263,000 jobs in November after surging by an upwardly revised 284,000 jobs in October. Street had expected employment to shoot up by 200,000 jobs compared to the addition of 261,000 jobs originally reported for the previous month. Meanwhile, the Labor Department said the unemployment rate held at 3.7 percent in November, unchanged from October and in line with Street estimates. While the report points to continued strength in the labor market, the data has added to lingering uncertainty about the outlook for interest rates.
The Federal Reserve is likely to slow the pace of interest rate hikes as early as next month, but continued labor market tightness may still lead the central bank to raise rates higher than currently anticipated. The Fed’s two-day meeting will be held on December 13-14, in which the central bank is expected to slow to a 50 basis point interest rate hike from the 75 basis point hikes seen in recent months. On the sectoral front, Semiconductor stocks recovered from their worst levels of the day, but the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index still fell by 1.2 percent. Banking and computer hardware stocks also moved to the downside, while tobacco, steel and oil service stocks rallied.
Nasdaq lost 20.95 points or 0.18 percent to 11,461.50 and S&P 500 was down by 4.87 points 0.12 percent to 4,071.70, while Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 34.87 points or 0.10 percent to 34,429.88.
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