US stocks slump after strong payrolls; Delta, Walgreens soars
U.S. stocks fell sharply Friday, after a stronger than expected jobs report raised concerns about a slower pace of interest rate cuts in 2025.
At 09:35 ET (14:35 GMT), Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 335 points, or 0.8%, S&P 500 dropped 50 points, or 0.8%, and NASDAQ Composite slipped 205 points, or 1.1%.
Wall Street indexes were nursing a choppy start to 2025, as hawkish signals from the Federal Reserve and uncertainty over President-elect Donald Trump’s policies weighed on risk appetite.
The US economy unexpectedly added more jobs in December versus the prior month, according to a monthly report that could factor into how the Federal Reserve approaches possible interest rate cuts.
Nonfarm payrolls increased by 256,000 jobs last month after rising by an downwardly revised 212,000 in November, the Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics said. Economists had forecast an uptick of 164,000 roles.
The unemployment rate fell to 4.1%, below November's pace of 4.2%.
Strength in the labor market is expected to give the Fed even more headroom to delay cutting interest rates this year. Fears of a labor market slowdown were one of the main motivations for the Fed cutting rates by 1% in 2024.
Source: Investing.com
