US markets end in red on Friday after jobs report

05 Aug 2023 Evaluate

The US markets ended a volatile trading session in red on Friday after the Labor Department released a report showing employment in the U.S. increased by less than expected in the month of July. The report said non-farm payroll employment climbed by 187,000 jobs in July after rising by a downwardly revised by 185,000 jobs in June. Street had expected employment to jump by 200,000 jobs compared to the addition of 209,000 jobs originally reported for the previous month. Meanwhile, the Labor Department said the unemployment rate edged down to 3.5 percent in July from 3.6 percent in June. Street had expected the unemployment rate to remain unchanged. The Labor Department also said average hourly employee earnings increased by $0.14 or 0.4 percent to $33.74 in July. Annual wage growth came in at 4.4 percent in July, unchanged from June. Street had expected the pace of growth to slow to 4.2 percent.

On the sectoral front, Tobacco stocks showed a significant move to the downside, dragging the NYSE Arca Tobacco Index down by 2.6 percent. Considerable weakness also emerged among utilities stocks, as reflected by the 1.2 percent drop by the Dow Jones Utility Average. Meanwhile, telecom stocks held on to substantial gains, resulting in a 9.4 percent spike by the NYSE Arca North American Telecom Index. In stock specific developments, shares of Amazon (AMZN) moved sharply higher after the online retail giant reported better than expected second quarter and provided upbeat revenue guidance for the current quarter. On the other hand, shares of Apple (AAPL) saw notable weakness after the tech giant reported fiscal third quarter earnings that beat analyst estimates but a continued decrease in revenues.

Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 150.27 points or 0.43 percent to 35,065.62, Nasdaq lost 50.48 points or 0.36 percent to 13,909.24 and S&P 500 was down by 23.86 points or 0.53 percent to 4,478.03.

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