Washington, Jan 10, 2025 (AFP)
US stocks opened lower Friday, as US job gains did far better than expected, pushing up bond yields on fears that interest rates would remain higher for longer.
Hiring in the world's biggest economy blew past expectations last month, according to fresh Labor Department data, while the unemployment rate ticked lower.
The strong hiring figures reduce the pressure on the Fed to cut interest rates further, likely keeping them stuck higher for longer.
Around 15 minutes into trading on Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.7 percent at 42,323.99.
The broad-based S&P 500 Index slumped 0.9 to 5,863.53, and the tech-focused Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 1.4 percent to 19,202.42.
Meantime, yields on the widely-traded 10-year US Treasury spiked by close to 10 basis points after the jobs report on fears of higher interest rates.
"We're seeing more selling across the board in multiple asset classes after the jobs report came out," Adam Sarhan from 50 Park Investments told AFP.
"You have a situation where the market, or just markets in general, loves easy money, and now we have a situation where the Fed's cut in December might be the last cut for the foreseeable future," he said.
Among individual firms, pharmacy giant Walgreens jumped close to 25 percent after it posted strong quarterly earnings.
And Constellation Energy's shares surged by 23.4 percent after it agreed to acquire natural gas company Calpine for close to $27 billion.

Sumber : AFP