(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 the close of trading in New York the Dow Jones Industrial Average (INDEXDJX:.DJI) was down 287 points at 17847 while the Nasdaq Composite (INDEXNASDAQ:.IXIC) fell 58 points to 4924 and the S&P 500 (INDEXSP:.INX) tumbled 31 points to 2069.
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 day started with the economic report that investors have been waiting for all week with the Labour 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.
Elsewhere in data consumer borrowing in the world’s largest economy increased in January at the slowest pace since November 2013 as Americans cut back on their credit-card use.
In corporate activity () shares rose more than 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 2.5%.
Gap () late Thursday reported February same store sales fell 4% well below expectations for a 1.4% increase with shares down 1.8% on 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 gold for April delivery on Comex dropped 2.7 percent to settle at $1164.30 an ounce. For the week bullion logged a 4 percent decline. Meanwhile crude oil futures fell 2.3 percent to settle at $49.61 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange as the dollar surged on the back of the latest non-farm payrolls figures.
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