by Caroline Valetkevitch
NEW YORK (Reuters) – The New York Stock Exchange ended lower on Friday after the publication of the monthly employment report in the United States which supports the scenario of an imminent rate hike by the Federal Reserve.
The Labor Department announced before the opening of the creation of fewer jobs than expected but a drop in the unemployment rate and a marked increase in wages.
The Dow Jones index fell 0.01%, or 4.81 points, to 36,231.66 points.
The larger S & P-500 fell 19.02 points, or -0.41%, to 4,677.03 points.
The Nasdaq Composite fell 144.96 points (-0.96%) to 14,935.90 points.
Over the past week, the S&P lost 1.87%, the Dow 0.29% and the Nasdaq dropped 4.53% – its biggest weekly percentage drop since late February 2021 – according to provisional data.
The US economy created 199,000 jobs last month when the consensus expected 400,000, but the unemployment rate fell to 3.9%, a level considered by some to correspond to full employment, and hourly wages increased by 0 , 6% over one month.
These last two figures could provide additional arguments to the Fed to advance the tightening of its monetary policy.
Technology stocks were once again penalized by the prospect of an increase in the cost of credit, while financials took advantage of the anticipated rate hike, which should boost the sector’s margins.
At particular values, game distributor Gamestop climbed 7.3% after announcing the launch of a division to develop a non-fungible token (NFT) trading platform and enter into partnerships in the cryptocurrency market .
(French version Marc Angrand and Jean-Stéphane Brosse)