Wall St. falls as US jobs data muddies Fed rate hike
NEW YORK (AFP) - Wall Street stocks fell Friday after a mixed US jobs report clouded prospects for a Federal Reserve interest rate hike amid China-induced global market turmoil.
The broad-based S&P 500 retreated 29.91 points (1.53 percent) to 1,921.22. The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 272.38 (1.66 percent) at 16,102.38 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 49.58 (1.05 percent) to 4,683.92.
The Labor Department reported the economy added fewer jobs than forecast, 173,000, but the previous two months' job gains were revised upward, pushing the unemployment rate down more than expected to 5.1 percent.
It was the last major jobs data before the Fed's policy arm, the Federal Open Market Committee, meets on September 16-17 to consider raising the key federal funds rate for the first time since 2006.
"There is ample ammunition from this job reports both for those that think that rates should be raised at the next Fed meeting, and for those that think they should not," said Michael James at Wedbush Securities.
Monday's market closures for the Labor Day holiday were seen as a factor in the Friday slippage.
"Ahead of a three-day weekend ... what we see today, I think, is a risk-off mentality, as both China and European weaknesses have dictated our markets' direction for the last week," said James.
