“A report that showed only 88,000 U.S. jobs were added in March reversed the mood on Wall Street Friday, sending stocks downward,” UPI reports.
“Economists had expected 200,000 new jobs but the total turned out to be the lowest in 10 months,” UPI reports. “Although the jobless rate was down a notch, to 7.6 percent, it was largely due to people dropping out of the workforce.”
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“Some of the weakness appeared due to higher tax rates that took effect in January. While recent reports have pointed to relatively buoyant retail sales in January and February, Friday’s data showed retailers actually cut staff in March by 24,100, making it the hardest-hit sector last month,” Jason Lange reports for Reuters. “The report rattled investors and sent U.S. stocks lower, contributing to the biggest weekly decline for share prices this year. Benchmark Treasury debt yields fell to their lowest this year and the dollar declined against a basket of currencies.”
“The jobless rate fell to its lowest since December 2008, but the report showed that much of the drop was due to the labor force shrinking by 496,000 people,” Lange reports. “That pushed the labor force participation rate – the percentage of working-age Americans either with a job or looking for one – to 63.3 percent, its lowest since 1979… Some of the people dropping out of the labor force are retiring or going back to school, but others have given up the job hunt out of discouragement.
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“The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost around 41 points, or 0.28 percent, to 14,565. The S&P 500 shed almost 7 points, or 0.43 percent, to close at 1,553,” Scott Rubin reports for Benzinga. “The Nasdaq Composite fell 21 points, or 0.65 percent, to 3,204.”
Rubin reports, “Shares of Pandora Media (NYSE: P) fell almost 8 percent on Friday as investors worried that Apple’s (NASDAQ: AAPL) iRadio could hurt the company.”
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