U.S. Stocks Fall After Strong Jobs Report for September

By Liz Moyer

Investing.com -- U.S. stocks opened lower on Friday after investors took in the latest report on jobs that showed a still-strong labor market.

At 10:24 ET (14:24 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 401 points or 1.4%, while the S&P 500 was down 1.8%, and the NASDAQ Composite was down 2.4%.

The unemployment rate dropped to 3.5% in September from 3.7% the prior month, and the growth in jobs came in slightly above expectations. That is despite efforts by the Federal Reserve to slow down demand. Jobs rose 263,000 last month, while analysts were looking for growth of 250,000.

Evidence of a still-tight labor market means the Fed doesn’t have a reason to ease off its big interest rate increases, as some investors had hoped. Some fear an aggressive Fed will overshoot its efforts to cool the economy and tip the U.S. into a recession.

Markets jumped earlier this week as investors believed evidence the economy was slowing would encourage the Fed to "pivot" at some point next year and begin cutting rates again. This idea is something multiple Fed officials have tried to dismiss in public appearances this week. But in the meantime, the Fed is seen as remaining aggressive on its monetary tightening. The odds are now 83% that there will be another 0.75 percentage point rate hike in November, according to Reuters.

Shares of Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:AMD) fell more than 8% after it warned that revenue will fall $1 billion short of its previous guidance on a slump in PC sales. That disclosure weighed on other chip stocks, including Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC), down 4%, and Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU), down 2.8%.

Oil was rising. Crude Oil WTI Futures was up 2.7% to $90.84 a barrel, while Brent Oil Futures rose 2.5% to $96.72 a barrel. Gold Futures fell 0.8% to $1705.