Wall Street Down After Disappointing US Jobs Report
Stock markets in New York opened lower on Friday. Investors on Wall Street have focused their attention on the US government’s monthly jobs report, which came in much weaker than expected. In addition, labour market developments play an important role in the monetary policy of the Federal Reserve.
Employment in the United States grew by 235,000 in August, while economists had expected average growth of 733,000 new jobs. It is the weakest job growth in the world’s largest economy in seven months. However, in July, there was still growth of more than 1 million jobs in the US.
According to economists, employers may have become more reluctant to hire new staff due to uncertainty due to the advance of the Delta variant of the coronavirus. But many employers also struggle to find staff, which slows down job growth. If the labour market recovery from the corona crisis weakens, the Fed can maintain its support measures for longer.
Shortly after the start, the Dow-Jones index was 0.3 percent lower at 35,324 points. The broad-based S&P 500 fell 0.2 percent to 4,526 points, and the technology gauge Nasdaq lost 0.2 percent to 15,308 points.
New York-listed Chinese taxi app Didi Global gained 5.2 percent. Bloomberg news agency reported that the Chinese capital Beijing would like to take a stake in Didi and even control the company. Didi is under fire domestically for suspicions of illegal practices and violations of privacy rules.
Commercial space company Virgin Galactic fell 3.7 percent after finishing in the red a day earlier. As a result, Virgin Galactic’s spaceplane is not allowed to take to the skies for the time being. During its final flight, on July 11, the aircraft deviated from its agreed course while en route back to Earth. The FAA is now investigating.
On the front of the quarterly figure, chip company Broadcom could count on attention. The results were better than expected, and the Broadcom share gained more than 2 percent. Business server and computer system maker Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) also opened the books, up 2.7 percent.
Biotechnologist Forte Biosciences plummeted more than 80 percent because of disappointing test results with an experimental drug against eczema.
