Tags: stocks | jobs | fed

Wall St Ticks Down on Fear of Fed Caution After Jobs Data

Wall St Ticks Down on Fear of Fed Caution After Jobs Data
(AP)

Friday, 07 February 2025 10:49 AM EST

Wall Street's main indexes fell slightly Friday after the latest jobs data raised the prospects of a more cautious Federal Reserve, while a survey showed unexpected weakness in U.S. consumer sentiment.

A Labor Department report showed the U.S. economy added 143,000 jobs in January, compared with a rise of 170,000 expected by economists.

The unemployment rate stood at 4%, compared with the expectations of 4.1%, while the U.S. economy created 598,000 fewer jobs in the 12 months through March than previously estimated.

"It's enough to keep the Fed on the sidelines, but also put just a seed of doubt about the economic strength in the back of investors' minds," said Ross Mayfield, investment strategist at Baird.

"I don't think it's a negative print, but I don't think it's a big risk-on print either."

Separately, the University of Michigan's preliminary index on consumer sentiment for February came in at 67.8, compared to a forecast of 71.1.

Traders of short-term interest-rate futures continue to bet the Fed will next cut its policy rate in June after the data.

At 10:41 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 76.68 points, or 0.17%; the S&P 500 lost 12.82 points, or 0.21%; and the Nasdaq Composite lost 104.26 points, or 0.53%.

Six of the 11 S&P 500 sectors traded lower, with consumer discretionary leading losses with a 1.4% fall.

Meanwhile, Amazon.com dipped 3.6% due to weakness in the retailer's cloud computing unit, Amazon Web Services, and lower-than-expected forecasts for first-quarter revenue and profit.

Markets had a dismal start to the week when U.S. President Donald Trump announced sweeping trade tariffs over the weekend, but suspended the levies on goods from Mexico and Canada on Monday for a month.

Since then, a host of strong earnings and optimism about a potential China-U.S. trade deal despite Beijing's tit-for-tat tariffs have set all three major indexes on track for weekly gains, with the Dow on pace for its fourth straight weekly rise.

Of the 292 S&P 500 companies that have reported earnings so far, more than 76% beat analysts' expectations, according to data compiled by LSEG.

Among other early movers, Pinterest jumped 17.5% after the image-sharing platform forecast first-quarter revenue above market estimates.

Elf Beauty tumbled 23.3% after the cosmetics company cut its annual net sales and profit forecasts, while Expedia added 16.1% after the online travel platform posted better-than-expected fourth-quarter results.

Chipmaker Microchip Technology fell 3.7% after forecasting fourth-quarter net sales and profit below estimates.

Declining issues outnumbered advancers by a 1.39-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and by a 1.6-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

The S&P 500 posted 32 new 52-week highs and 13 new lows while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 73 new highs and 68 new lows.

© 2025 Thomson/Reuters. All rights reserved.


StreetTalk
Wall Street's main indexes fell slightly Friday after the latest jobs data raised the prospects of a more cautious Federal Reserve, while a survey showed unexpected weakness in U.S. consumer sentiment.
stocks, jobs, fed
452
2025-49-07
Friday, 07 February 2025 10:49 AM
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