Surprisingly Strong Jobs Report Shakes Markets

Sharp drop wipes out Dow's gain for the year
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Oct 3, 2023 3:37 PM CDT
Sharp Drop Wipes Out Dow's Gain for the Year
Specialist Dilip Patel works at his post on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2023.   (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Wall Street tumbled Tuesday as it focused on the downside of a surprisingly strong job market.

  • The S&P 500 fell 58.94 points, or 1.4%, to 4,229.45.
  • The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 430.97 points, or 1.3%, to 33,002.38 and wiped out the last of its gains for the year so far.
  • The Nasdaq composite fell 248.31 points, or 1.9%, to 13,059.47 as Big Tech stocks were among the market's biggest losers.
Stocks fell after a report showed US employers have many more job openings than expected. That raised expectations for interest rates to stay high, and the 10-year Treasury yield hit its highest level since 2007.

The report on the US job market could give the Fed more reason to keep rates high. It showed employers were advertising 9.6 million job openings at the end of August, much higher than the 8.9 million that economists expected. Such hunger for workers could keep upward pressure on wages to attract employees. While that would be welcomed by workers trying to keep up with inflation, the Fed's fear is that could give inflation more fuel. Big Tech stocks were some of the heaviest weights on the market. They and other high-growth stocks are seen as some of the biggest victims of high interest rates. Amazon fell 3.7%, Microsoft dropped 2.6% and Nvidia lost 3.1%.

Point Biopharma, which develops cancer-fighting treatments, soared 84.9% after Eli Lilly said it was buying the company for about $1.4 billion in cash. Eli Lilly fell 2.4%. A weaker recovery than expected in China's economy was one of the main reasons McCormick, a maker of cooking spices, reported slightly weaker revenue for its latest quarter than analysts expected. Its profit matched expectations, but its stock fell 8.5%. (More stock market stories.)

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