Wall Street stocks fall; jobs data feeds uncertainty about rate cuts

By Chibuike Oguh

NEW YORK (Reuters) -U.S. stocks fell on Friday weighed down by a jobs report that showed a continued labor market slowdown but left traders uncertain about how far the Federal Reserve will go in cutting interest rates.

All three main indexes were lower, with the 11 sectors of the benchmark S&P 500 losing ground led by declines in communication services, technology and consumer discretionary equities.

The S&P 500 and the Dow were on track for their biggest weekly drop since March 2023, with the Nasdaq on track for its biggest weekly drop since January 2022.

U.S. Labor Department data showed U.S. employers added 142,000 jobs in August, shy of analyst expectations, while jobs growth for July was revised down to 89,000, also below estimates.

The report means Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell must cut rates later this month, but also suggests he may be too late for the economy to achieve a soft landing, said Lou Basenese, president and chief market strategist at MDB Capital in New York.

"If we start seeing layoffs in the next month or two, it's going to suggest his timing was too late. Stocks are going to go down until next week when the Fed makes it definitive that they're cutting, which could put pressure on them to do 50 basis points versus 25 bps. I think 25 bps is all but guaranteed," Basenese said.

Fed Governor Christopher Waller said on Friday "the time has come" for the U.S. central bank to begin a series of interest rate cuts, adding he is open-minded about the size and pace.

Traders' bets for a 25-basis point rate cut in September stood at 73%, according to the CME Group's (NASDAQ:CME ) FedWatch Tool, while those for a 50-bps reduction in rates were at 27%, down from a brief rise to 51% after the report.

"I still think the Fed is going to move 25 basis points," said Tony Roth, chief investment officer at Wilmington Trust in Radnor, Pennsylvania. "I don't think that the Fed is really ready at this point to push the panic button."

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 423.37 points, or 1.04%, to 40,331.80, the S&P 500 lost 98.88 points, or 1.80%, to 5,404.53 and the Nasdaq Composite lost 449.24 points, or 2.62%, to 16,678.25.

Leading megacap growth stocks were lower. Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA ) was down 5%, Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA ) fell 7.3%, Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL ) dropped 3.6%, Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN ) lost 3.3%, Meta (NASDAQ:META ) lost 3.4%, Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT ) shed 1.3%, and Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL ) fell 1%.

Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO ) sank 9.7% after the chipmaker forecast fourth-quarter revenue slightly below estimates, hurt by sluggish spending in its broadband segment.



Other chip stocks were down. Marvell (NASDAQ:MRVL ) Technology dropped 5.8% and Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:AMD ) shed 4.5%. The Philadelphia SE Semiconductor index down 4.8%. The semiconductor index is set for its biggest weekly drop since March 2020.

Super Micro Computer (NASDAQ:SMCI ) dropped 6%. J.P. Morgan analysts had downgraded AI server maker's shares to "neutral" from "overweight".

Source: Investing.com