US equities fell on Fri, as traders digested the implications of a strong US jobs number on monetary policy. Tech stocks bore the brunt of the selling.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 348.58 pts, or 1.05%, to close at 32,899.70. The S&P 500 index fell 1.63%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite retreated 2.47%. The small cap Russell 2000 dropped 0.77%. For the week, the S&P 500 fell 1.2% this week, while the Dow and the Nasdaq each lost nearly 1%.
The US Labor Department reported that the US economy added 390,000 positions in May, higher when compared with estimates for 318,000 gain.
Tesla (TSLA US) shares closed down more than 9% on Fri. Reuters reported late Thu on an e-mail CEO Elon Musk sent which said he had a “super bad feeling” about the economy and called for the job cuts. Over the weekend, Musk backtracked, total headcount will increase over the next 12 months, but the number of salaried staff should be little changed.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury note notched up 2.56 basis points (bps) to 2.9332%, while the yield on the 2-year Treasuries rose 2.29 bps to 2.6525%.
The front-month Brent and WTI futures closed up $2.11 at US$119.72/bbl and $2.00 at US$118.87/bbl respectively.
The ICE dollar index (DXY), which measures the strength of the greenback against a basket of currencies, rose 0.31% to 102.140.
The most actively traded US gold futures (Aug) contracts settled down $21.20, or 1.13%, at US$1,850.20/oz. July silver, which is the most actively traded silver futures, fell $0.367 cents, or 1.65%, to end at US$21.908/oz.
Financial markets in the UK were closed for the Platinum Jubilee last Fri. Otherwise, European equity markets finished lower. France's CAC 40 fell 0.23%, while the German DAX retreated 0.17%.