(menafn – ecpulse)
Wall Street had its biggest weekly decline of the year and erased more than 1 percent of the equity market value amid no key fundamentals to ease jobs disappointment that punched sentiments hardly after the holiday weekend as March payrolls in the U.S. were surprisingly fewer than projections.
The U.S. Department of Labor reported Friday that American payrolls increased by 120 thousand in March, after rising 240 thousand (revised from 227 thousand) - an employment figure that is too below market consensus of 205 thousand, while Unemployment in the U.S. unexpectedly fell to 8.2 percent from 8.3 percent in March.
The slowdown in hiring shocked the markets after three consecutive months of 200 thousand plus employment figures, but instead the Labor Department reported the weakest increase in payrolls in five months, fueling bets the Federal Reserve should act soon to stimulate job creation around the country.
All groups on the Dow and the S&P 500 Index were down at the start of today, led by financials and particularly banks as Bank of America Corp shed 2.9 percent after denying Leman accusation of being engaged in illegal conduct. JPMorgan Chase & Co lost 2.5 percent.
AOL Inc Rallied 34.0 percent after the internet company agreed to sell and license more than 800 patents to Microsoft Corp that slumped 1.5 percent in a deal worth 1.06 billion. Apple Inc slipped nearly 1.0 percent after the marker of iPad was downgraded to "neutral" from "but" at BTIG.
The Dollar index which measures the performance of the U.S. dollar against a basket of currencies including the Euro, the Pound, and the Yen, bounced up a little from Friday's slump to currently trade around 79.88, recording a high of 80.03 and a low of 79.79.
Equities were weighed down further as Gold rebounded to reach 1646.30 since the opening level of 1629.25. Oil futures for May 12 deliveries declined to reach 101.50 after opening at 102.49 per barrel.
As of 09:55 a.m. in New York, sectors that shed points the most leading the decline in the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 Index were financials, industrials and oil & gas shares, respectively.
Accordingly, Dow Jones Industrial Average traded lower by 152 points or 1.17 percent around 12,907 levels, S&P 500 index traded at 1,378 as it dropped by 19 points or 1.39 percent, while NASDAQ Composite index declined 47 points or 1.55 percent to trade around 3,032 levels.
