Stocks fall as jobs data rekindles rate hike fear

STORY: Wall Street ended lower on Friday, weighed down by tech stocks after a stronger-than-expected jobs report torpedoed recent optimism that the Federal Reserve might ease up on its aggressive campaign against high inflation.

The Dow closed with a near quarter of a percent gain, while the S&P ended down fractionally and the tech-heavy Nasdaq fell half a percent.

Data on Friday showed U.S. employers hired far more workers than expected in July, took the air out of investors' hopes that the Fed might let up on interest rate hikes.

Christian Ledoux is director of investments at CAPTRUST.

"It's a pretty mild reaction to today's jobs report, which was, I think, a lot higher than most people were expecting. But I think the reality is, is that's a lagging indicator that reflected a period before a lot of layoff announcements had been made. And I think when when we see the next month's data, we're going to see the drop in employment or maybe not a negative number, but a much lower add that will be more reflective of what's happening in the in the real world."

Bank stocks rose as the odds increased for another 75-basis-point interest rate hike in September.

Shares of rate-sensitive tech companies like Facebook-owner Meta Platforms and Amazon fell Friday, pulling down the S&P 500.

But a more than 6.5% decline in shares of Tesla weighed more heavily on the index.

Bucking the trend for tech shares was Twitter, which gained more than 3.5%.

And, finally, shares of Lyft surged more than 16.5% after the ride-hailing firm forecast an adjusted operating profit of $1 billion for the year 2024 after posting record quarterly earnings.