*

Amazon ( AMZN ) slides after cloud computing growth underwhelms

investors

*

U.S. job growth slowed more than expected in July

*

Trump fires

(Updates to market close)

By Chuck Mikolajczak

NEW YORK, Aug 1 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks slumped on

Friday, with the S&P on track for its biggest daily percentage

decline in more than three months as new U.S. tariffs on dozens

of trading partners and a surprisingly weak jobs report spurred

selling pressure.

Also weighing on equities was a tumble in Amazon.com ( AMZN )

shares after the company posted quarterly results but failed to

meet lofty expectations for its Amazon Web Services cloud

computing unit.

Just hours before the tariff deadline on Friday, President

Donald Trump signed an executive order imposing duties on U.S.

imports from countries, including Canada, Brazil, India and

Taiwan, in his latest round of levies as countries attempted to

seek ways to reach better deals.

Further denting confidence in the economic picture, data showed

U.S. job growth slowed more than expected in July while the

prior month's report was revised sharply lower, indicating the

labor market may be starting to crack.

The report significantly pushed up expectations the Federal

Reserve will cut interest rates at its September meeting.

"There's no way to pretty-up this report. Previous months

were revised significantly lower where the labor market has been

on stall-speed," said Brian Jacobsen, Chief Economist at Annex

Wealth Management in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin.

"Last year the Fed messed up by not cutting in July so they

did a catch-up cut at their next meeting. They'll likely have to

do the same thing this year."

According to preliminary data, the S&P 500

lost 101.60 points, or 1.60%, to end at 6,237.79 points,

while the Nasdaq Composite lost 472.78 points, or 2.24%,

to 20,649.67. The Dow Jones Industrial Average

fell 543.97 points, or 1.23%, to 43,587.01.

Market expectations the Fed will cut rates by at least 25 basis

points at its September meeting stood at 80.9%, according to

CME's FedWatch Tool, up from 37.7% in the prior session.

Other data from the Institute for Supply Management showed U.S.

manufacturing contracted for a fifth straight month in July and

factory employment dropped to the lowest level in five years.

Both the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq recorded their biggest

single-day percentage declines since April 21 and all three

major indexes were on track for weekly losses.

The CBOE Volatility Index, also known as Wall Street's

fear gauge, climbed to as much as 21.90, its highest since June

23.

Amazon ( AMZN ) was the biggest drag on the Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq and

pushed the consumer discretionary index, down nearly

4% as the worst performing of the 11 major S&P 500 sectors.

Also reporting earnings was Apple ( AAPL ), which fell after it

posted a current-quarter revenue forecast well above Wall Street

estimates, but CEO Tim Cook warned U.S. tariffs would add $1.1

billion in costs over the period.

Stocks briefly extended declines after Trump said he ordered the

commissioner of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Erika L.

McEntarfer, to be fired in the wake of the jobs data.

In contrast to the broad declines, Reddit ( RDDT ) surged after

it reported quarterly results that exceeded Street expectations,

boosted by an AI-focused advertising strategy and strong user

engagement.