US markets end lower on Friday

09 Mar 2024 Evaluate

The US markets ended lower on Friday on account of profit taking. Further, buying interest remained somewhat subdued as traders seemed reluctant to continue buying stocks ahead of the release of key inflation data next week that could have a more profound impact on the outlook for rates. However, the early strength on markets came as the Labor Department's closely watched monthly jobs report added to optimism about the outlook for interest rates. While job growth in February came in much stronger than expected, the report also showed notable downward revisions to job growth in the two previous months. The Labor Department said non-farm payroll employment surged by 275,000 jobs in February, while street had expected employment to jump by 200,000 jobs.

However, the report also said job growth in December and January was downwardly revised to 290,000 and 229,000 jobs, respectively, reflecting a net downward revision of 167,000 jobs. The Labor Department also said the unemployment rate rose to 3.9 percent in February from 3.7 percent in January. Street had expected the unemployment rate to come in unchanged. The downward revisions and the unexpected increase in the unemployment rate combined with a slowdown in the annual rate of wage growth has added to optimism the Federal Reserve will begin lowering interest rates in June. on the sectoral front, Semiconductor stocks helped lead the downturn on the day after helping to lead the markets higher on Thursday, with the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index plummeting by 4.0 percent.

Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 68.66 points or 0.18 percent to 38,722.69, Nasdaq dropped 188.26 points or 1.16 percent to 16,085.11 and S&P 500 was down by 33.67 points or 0.65 percent to 5,123.69.


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