Wall Street Ends Lower As Tightening Set To Continue

Wall Street's three major stock indexes ended lower on Friday after a solid jobs report ate into hopes for a pause in the Federal Reserve's aggressive policy-tightening which is needed to cool decades-high inflation.

The technology-heavy Nasdaq led the declines, falling 2.5 percent as shares of market heavyweights Apple and Tesla were the biggest drags on the market.

Earlier, the Labor Department's closely watched report showed non-farm payrolls rose by 390,000 jobs last month and wages grew, while the unemployment rate held steady at 3.6 percent – all signs of a tight labor market.

While the jobs report was reassuring for the current state of the economy, investors focused primarily on its potential influence on central bank policy.

Shawn Snyder, head of investment strategy at Citi Personal Wealth Management, saw the solid report as a double-edged sword.

"It's telling us the economy is in fairly good shape which is good news but when viewed in the context of what it means for the Federal Reserve and tightening monetary policy it likely makes them more confident they can continue to tighten," he said. "That comes through as a bit of a negative for investors because they're hoping for the Fed to pause later this year."

The Dow Jones fell 1.05 percent, to 32,899, the S&P 500 lost 1.63 percent to 4,108 and the Nasdaq dropped 2.47 percent, to 12,012.

For the week, the S&P 500 fell 1.2 percent, while the Nasdaq declined 0.98 percent and the Dow lost 0.94 percent after all three indexes had risen sharply the week before.

Volatility has gripped Wall Street in recent weeks as investors debated whether markets had hit a bottom against the backdrop of some hawkish comments from Fed officials and data suggesting that inflation may have peaked. (Reuters)