Wall Street closes modestly lower after jobs report

STORY: U.S. stocks rebounded to close almost where they opened on Friday, clawing back earlier losses after a stronger-than-expected jobs report for November raised questions over how soon the Federal Reserve could slow and eventually stop its aggressive interest rate hikes.

The Dow finished in the green, rising a tenth of a percent, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq both ended down fractionally.

The Labor Department's payrolls report showed employers added 263,000 jobs last month and that wage growth accelerated.

That disappointed investors who wanted a softer number to spur the Fed to scale back its interest rates hikes, says George Cipolloni, portfolio manager at Penn Mutual Asset Management.

"I think investors were right to be spooked in the beginning. I think that wage growth component of the number that came out today calls into question how fast the Fed can kind of back off. And so if the market expectation shifts back in the other and they convince themselves that the Fed will back off, then, yes, absolutely, stocks can rally from here."

Shares of growth and technology companies including Apple, Google-parent Alphabet and Amazon were pressured by concerns over rising rates.

Shares of Ford Motor declined on lower vehicle sales in November, while shares of food delivery firm DoorDash fell after a downgrade from RBC.

But U.S.-listed shares of Chinese companies Alibaba and JD.com jumped on hopes the country would relax its strict health crisis restrictions.