(Reuters) – The New York Stock Exchange ended sharply lower on Friday under pressure from high yields after the publication of the monthly employment report from the US Labor Department, which aroused fears of a resumption of inflation .
The Dow Jones index lost 1.63%, or 696.75 points, to 41,938.45 points. The broader Standard & Poor’s 500 lost 91.21 points, or -1.54% to 5,827.04 points. The Nasdaq Composite fell by 317.25 points, or -1.63% to 19,161.628 points.
This is the largest one-day percentage decline for the Dow and S&P-500 since December 18.
The three major New York indices are also clearly in the red over the week, with the Dow Jones and the S&P-500 dropping almost 2% and the Nasdaq more than 2.3%, its biggest weekly drop since the week of November 11.
“We started the year on the wrong foot,” said Sam Stovall, market strategist at CFRA Research, commenting on the impact of higher-than-expected employment data on stocks. He added that the equity environment could become “very difficult.”
The number of job creations significantly higher than expected in December in the United States (256,000, against a consensus of 160,000) has awakened fears of a rise in inflation and restarted the rise in bond yields and the dollar, pushing investors to lower their expectations for a reduction in key rates from the Federal Reserve in 2025.
They now believe that the US central bank will wait until June to make a further reduction and will abstain thereafter, while they previously expected a first reduction in May, potentially followed by a second reduction before the end of the ‘year.
On the values ​​side, Delta Air Lines gained 5.5% after declaring on Friday that it expected 2025 to be the most profitable year in its history and Walgreens Boots Alliance 2.5% after good quarterly results.
Constellation Energy jumped 25% after agreeing to buy private natural gas and geothermal company Calpine Corp. for $16.4 billion.
Nvidia, on the other hand, lost almost 3% after press reports according to which the Biden administration could impose new restrictions on exports of chips used for artificial intelligence.
(Written by Johann M Cherian and Sukriti Gupta in Bangalore and Carolina Mandl in New York, Tangi Salaün)
Copyright © 2025 Thomson Reuters
I have over 8 years of experience working in the news industry. I have worked as a reporter, editor, and now managing editor at 247 News Agency. I am responsible for the day-to-day operations of the news website and overseeing all of the content that is published. I also write a column for the website, covering mostly market news.
