U.S. Stocks Close Sharply Lower As Strong Jobs Data Raises Interest Rate Concerns

(RTTNews) - U.S. stocks tumbled on Friday due to heavy selling across the board as buoyant non-farm payroll data raised concerns that the Federal Reserve will likely hold interest rates at current levels or slow down the pace of reductions. Rising bond yields hurt as well.

The major averages all closed sharply lower. The Dow settled with a loss of 696.75 points or 1.63 percent, at 41,938.45. The S&P 500 closed down 91.21 points or 1.54 percent, at 5,827.04, while the Nasdaq ended lower by 317.25 points or 1.63 percent, at 19,161.62.

Data from the Labor Department showed U.S. non-farm payroll employment surged by 256,000 in December, after jumping by a downwardly revised 212,000 jobs in November.

Economists had expected employment to climb by 160,000 jobs compared to the addition of 227,000 jobs originally reported for the previous month.

The unemployment rate in the U.S. edged down to 4.1% in December from 4.2% in November. The rate was expected to come in unchanged.

"The Fed already took the foot of the brake somewhat in late 2024, as the unemployment rate edged higher and private hiring cooled," said Bill Adams, Chief Economist for Comerica Bank. "But they will see December's solid jobs report as evidence that there is no urgency to take their foot off the brake entirely."

He added, "Also, the Fed is concerned that another round of fiscal stimulus, higher tariffs, and immigration restrictions could further juice economic growth, raise inflation, and tighten the labor market, more support for a wait-and-see approach for additional cuts."

Preliminary data from the Univesity of Michigan said consumer sentiment in the U.S. has unexpectedly seen a modest deterioration in the month of January, The report said the consumer sentiment index edged down to 73.2 in January from 74.0 in December. Economists had expected the index to inch up to 74.5.

Oracle, PayPal, eBay, Advanced Micro Devices, Intel, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, MetLife and American Express closed down by 3 to 6 percent.

Verizon, Salesforce, Caterpillar, PepsiCo, Citigroup, Bank of America, General Motors, Wells Fargo, Apple, Accenture, P&G and Mastercard lost 2 to 3 percent.

Wallgreens Boots Alliance shares soared nearly 28 percent, after the company reported earnings of $265 million in the first quarter, compared to $67 million in the year-ago quarter.

Delta Air Lines climbed 9 percent. The company's bottom line dropped in the first quarter. However, it announced that earnings will be greater that $7.35 per share in 2025, up more than 10% year-over-year, compared to a normalized 2024 earnings per share baseline.

Whirlpool, Alaska Air, United Airlines Holdings, American Airlines, Eli Lilly, Walmart, Target, and Home Depot also closed with solid gains.

In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region moved mostly lower during trading on Friday. Japan's Nikkei 225 Index slumped by 1.1 percent, while China's Shanghai Composite Index tumbled by 1.3 percent.

The major European markets also moved to the downside on the day. While the German DAX Index lost 0.5 percent, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index closed down 0.86 percent, and the French CAC 40 Index fell 0.79 percent.

In the bond market, treasuries moved notably lower in reaction to the monthly jobs report. As a result, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, moved up by 7.0 basis points at 4.751 percent.