US: Tech shares lead stocks lower after solid jobs data

WALL Street stocks finished lower Friday (May 6) with tech shares sinking the most, as markets shrugged off a solid jobs report amid worries over slowing growth and higher interest rates.

The US economy added a better-than-expected 428,000 jobs in April, with the unemployment rate remaining at a low 3.6 per cent, the Labor Department reported.

But investors remain anxious that rising prices and higher interest rates will hit consumers, slowing the economy’s expansion in the second half of 2022.

“There is a real concern about slowing growth and the possibility that the economy could tip into recession,” said Briefing.com analyst Patrick O’Hare.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished at 32,899.37, down 0.3 per cent.

The broad-based S&P 500 shed 0.6 per cent to 4,123.34, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index slumped 1.4 per cent to 12,144.66.

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All three indices ended with weekly losses, with the Nasdaq suffering the most at 1.5 per cent.

Of the 11 sectors in the S&P 500, 10 closed with losses Friday, with only energy stocks rising as oil prices climbed.

O’Hare said beaten-down tech stocks could at some point climb due to bargain hunting, but that investors were still too unsure about the earnings outlook given uncertainty about the macroeconomy.