US Jobs Surge, Tech Concerns Whiplash Stocks & Send Dollar Higher

A surge in hiring in the United States renewed worries about aggressive interest rate hikes on Friday, bolstering the dollar and whiplashing Wall Street stocks

New York (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 4th Feb, 2023 ):A surge in hiring in the United States renewed worries about aggressive interest rate hikes on Friday, bolstering the dollar and whiplashing Wall Street stocks.

Meanwhile, disappointing earnings reports from Apple, Amazon, and Google owner Alphabet added to unease about the outlook for the crucial tech sector after torrid growth early in the pandemic.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq, which piled on more than three percent Thursday thanks to forecast-beating results from Facebook parent Meta, led major US indices lower, falling 1.6 percent.

Shares of Amazon and Google parent Alphabet both tumbled Friday, while Apple shook off early weakness and finished higher.

Data showing that after a five-month slowdown in hiring, the world's biggest economy added 517,000 jobs in January, may have dented hopes that the US Federal Reserve could slow interest rate hikes further or even reverse them later this year.

"The key takeaway from the report is that it has the market questioning its own conviction about the prospect of the Fed cutting rates before the end of the year, " said market analyst Patrick O'Hare at Briefing.com.

The dollar bounded higher after the data was released, and the yield on US government bonds climbed higher.

But the jobs figures and other recent data also helped relieve concerns about a recession.

In Europe, London's blue-chip FTSE 100 index on Friday soared to a record peak, lifted by the weak pound and record annual profits at oil major Shell.

- Key figures around 2140 GMT - New York - Dow: DOWN 0.4 percent at 33,926.01 (close) New York - S&P 500: DOWN 1.0 percent at 4,136.48 (close) New York - Nasdaq: DOWN 1.6 percent at 12,006.95 (close) London - FTSE 100: UP 1.0 percent at 7,901.80 (close) Frankfurt - DAX: DOWN 0.2 percent at 15,476.73 (close) Paris - CAC 40: UP 0.9 percent at 7,233.94 (close) EURO STOXX 50: UP 0.4 percent at 4,257.98 (close) Tokyo - Nikkei 225: UP 0.4 percent at 27,509.46 (close) Hong Kong - Hang Seng Index: DOWN 1.4 percent at 21,660.47 (close) Shanghai - Composite: DOWN 0.7 percent at 3,263.41 (close) Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.0799 from $1.0918 on Thursday Pound/dollar: DOWN at $1.2052 from $1.2225 Euro/pound: UP at 89.58 pence from 89.21 pence Dollar/yen: UP at 132.00 yen from 128.62 yen West Texas Intermediate: DOWN 3.3 percent at $73.23 per barrel Brent North Sea crude: DOWN 2.7 percent at $79.94 per barrel Meta Alphabet Inc.

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