(MENAFN- AFP) Wall Street stocks fell sharply early Friday after the September employment report showed the US economy added just 142,000 jobs last month.
About 30 minutes into trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was at 16,055.51, down 216.50 points (1.33 percent).
The broad-based S&P 500 fell 25.04 (1.30 percent) to 1,898.78, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 60.29 (1.30 percent) to 4,566.79.
The jobs report fell far short of estimates that the US economy added 205,000 jobs in September. The Labor Department also trimmed its estimates for jobs growth in July and August.
Analysts lowered the odds the US Federal Reserve will imminently raise interest rates.
Briefing.com analyst Patrick O'Hare said the jobs report was "decidedly bad."
"One thing that seems certain in the wake of this report is that the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) won't be raising the target range for the federal funds rate at the October meeting -- not unless it wants to kill any and all credibility it has remaining," O'Hare said.
Shares of large banks sank, with Dow member JPMorgan Chase losing 3.5 percent, Bank of America 5.4 percent and Citigroup 4.1 percent. Higher US interest rates usually translate into expectations of stronger profits for banks.
The telecom company T-Mobile US fell 2.7 percent on news that some 15 million of its customers had private data pilfered in a data hack of the Experian credit monitoring service.
Chipmaker Micron Technology jumped 5.6 percent after reporting earnings and revenues above expectations. Deutsche Bank said the stock was an "attractive play" for 2016.
Companies with casinos in Macau jumped following reports that Chinese government officials may take steps to boost the Macau economy. Wynn Resorts surged 13.2 percent and Las Vegas Sands rose 4.5 percent.
Leading technology stocks fell, including Amazon (-1.6 percent), Apple (-1.7 percent), Facebook (-2.4 percent) and Netflix (-3.7 percent).
Bond prices leaped. The yield on the 10-year US Treasury sank to 1.92 percent from 2.04 percent Thursday, while the 30-year fell to 2.76 percent from 2.86 percent. Bond prices and yields move inversely.
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