By Chuck Mikolajczak
NEW YORK (Reuters) – A gauge of global stocks fell for a second straight day and was poised for its biggest weekly decline in three months on Friday as a plunge in tech shares resumed, while the dollar kept climbing following the U.S. payrolls report.
U.S. job growth slowed in August as financial aid from the government was depleted, with nonfarm payrolls increasing by 1.371 million jobs versus the climb of 1.734 million in the prior month. Expectations were for the addition of 1.4 million jobs. The unemployment rate fell to 8.4% from 10.2%.
“The job market recovery has downshifted to a slower pace in the last few months amid the surge in virus cases. There’s still uncertainty about the virus as we go into the fall,” said Russell Price, chief economist at Ameriprise Financial Services in Troy, Michigan.
“Investors are primarily considering that the surge in virus cases slowed down the recovery and we still have virus concerns coming into the fall which may result in the jobs recovery to be slower than previously expected.”
On Wall Street, stocks were battered for a second consecutive session, as technology shares once again led a sell-off. The tech sector dropped 2.88% and was on track for its biggest two-day percentage drop in almost six months.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 495.16 points, or 1.75%, to 27,797.57, the S&P 500 lost 67.31 points, or 1.95%, to 3,387.75 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 295.44 points, or 2.58%, to 11,162.67.
The pan-European STOXX 600 index advanced in a choppy session following the U.S. payrolls report. Stocks had initially rebounded from their worst day in more than a month on gains in bank shares before losing steam to trade flat before the data.
The pan-European STOXX 600 index lost 1.13% to close down 2.03% on the week. MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe shed 1.85%. The MSCI index was on track for its worst week since late June.
The U.S. dollar continued to recover from two-year lows hit earlier in the week and was poised for its best week since late April while the euro continued its decline after breaching the $1.20 mark on Tuesday.
The dollar index rose 0.233%, with the euro down 0.37% to $1.1805.
U.S. Treasury yields jumped on the heels of the jobs report.
Benchmark 10-year notes last fell 21/32 in price to yield 0.6902%, from 0.622% late on Thursday.
Oil prices continued to weaken on demand concerns and were on track for their worst week since mid-June.
U.S. crude recently fell 2.63% to $40.28 per barrel and Brent was at $43.09, down 2.22% on the day.
(Additional reporting by Sinéad Carew; Editing by Steve Orlofsky and David Gregorio)
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