Stocks sink as jobs data signals tighter Fed policy
STORY: U.S. stocks dropped on Friday after a solid jobs report ate into hopes for a pause in the Federal Reserve's campaign to hike interest rates in its effort to fight decades-high inflation.
The Dow fell 1%, while the S&P 500 closed 1.6% lower, and the Nasdaq plunged about 2.5%.
Kevin Nicholson is global fixed-income chief investment officer at RiverFront Investment Group.
“The market is experiencing downside pressure on the equity side and on the fixed income side. Yields are going up and that's largely because of the uncertainty due to the underlying strength that we're seeing, we had both the JOLTS report and the nonfarm payrolls come out this week and they both were strong. And so it's basically reinforcing the fact that the Fed is going to continue to hike rates over the coming meetings both in June and July. And they're expecting 50 basis point increases and the market is reflecting that strength and reacting to it today.”
Shares of Apple sank nearly 4% after a bearish analyst note from Morgan Stanley that said Apple's App Store is showing signs of slowing growth.
Also weighing on the stock was a report that EU countries and lawmakers were set to agree on a common charging port for mobile devices next week, a proposal Apple has fiercely opposed.
Tesla shares fell more than 9% after CEO Elon Musk, in an email to executives seen by Reuters, said he has a "super bad feeling" about the economy and needs to cut about 10% of the workforce at the electric car maker.
One of the few tech stocks to post a gain Friday was Twitter, after the social media company said the U.S. antitrust waiting period for Musk's $44 billion acquisition of Twitter had expired, indicating it had dodged a lengthy review of the proposed deal.
