(MENAFN- ProactiveInvestors) U.S. stocks slid on Friday as investors assessed a strong non farm payrolls report and worried that a rate hike will now occur sooner rather than later.
Approaching noon in New York the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 179 points at 17955 while the Nasdaq fell 37 points to 4945 and the S&P 500 tumbled 20 points to 2080.
Wall Street broke a two day losing streak Thursday with all three indexes edging slightly higher. All the major averages are set to post weekly losses however.
The morning started with the economic report that investors have been waiting for all week with the Labor Department reporting that the U.S. economy added 295000 new jobs in February much better than consensus estimates for 240000. The unemployment rate ticked down to 5.5% from 5.7% also topping views.
The January job gain was lowered to 239000 from 257000 while the December figure was unchanged at 329000.
At the same time the January trade deficit was also released narrowing by less than expected to $41.8 billion.
This afternoon investors will get a look at the consumer credit report for January out at 3:00pm ET. Consumer credit is expected to rise $14 billion in January compared to December's $14.8 billion.
In corporate activity () shares rose almost 4% after it posted better-than-expected results in its latest quarter helped by strong sales growth.
Meanwhile () swung to a net loss in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2014 hurt by impairment charges for its overseas business with shares dropping 3%.
Gap () late Thursday reported February same store sales fell 4% well below expectations for a 1.4% increase with shares down 1.1% Friday.
The passed all 31 banks on their stress test on minimum levels of capital including JPMorgan Chase () (NYSE:BAC) Citigroup () and Wells Fargo ().
's () new mobile payment system has reportedly been hit by a wave of fraudulent transactions using credit card data stolen in recent breaches of big retailers like Target () and () according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. rallied on Friday however on news it is finally being added to the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
In other markets European stocks built on multiyear highs ahead of the launch of the massive bond buying campaign due to start on Monday. German industrial production also increased 0.6% in January to top estimates while a second estimate of fourth quarter eurozone GDP was revised up to show 0.9% year-over-year growth compared to the previous estimate of 0.8%.
Asian markets were soft except for in Japan where stocks extended gains to a fresh 15-year high as the yen weakened versus the greenback ahead of the U.S. jobs report.
In commodities April gold fell $23 to $1173 an ounce in New York set for its lowest close of the year after the blockbuster jobs report. Meanwhile crude oil futures dropped $1.02 to $49.77 a barrel as the dollar surged on the back of the latest non-farm payrolls figures.
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