(Updates to mid-afternoon)
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Consumer data shows jump in inflation expectations
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Nonfarm payrolls rose 143,000 in January vs 307,000 in
December
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Trump will announce new reciprocal tariffs next week
By Stephen Culp
NEW YORK, Feb 7 (Reuters) - Wall Street turned sharply
lower and benchmark Treasury yields jumped on Friday in the wake
of a mixed payrolls report, weak consumer sentiment data and
revived trade war jitters.
All three major U.S. stock indexes were lower, and the
selloff gathered velocity after a report that U.S. President
Donald Trump will shortly announce new tariffs.
The much-anticipated employment report showed the U.S. added
143,000 jobs in January, 53.4% fewer than December's upwardly
revised 307,000.
The report, distorted by annual benchmark revisions, along
with California wildfires and unusually cold weather, also
showed hotter-than-expected wage growth and a surprise dip in
the unemployment rate, to 4.0% from 4.1%.
"It's a mixed bag," said Rob Williams, chief investment
strategist at Sage Advisory Services in Austin, Texas, adding
the market was trying to digest the data.
"It was a miss on the headline, but the revisions over the
last two months were positive, and hourly earnings were also
up."
A separate report from the University of Michigan showed
consumer sentiment has darkened unexpectedly this month as
inflation expectations spiked.
The major indexes extended losses after Trump said he will
announce a new round of reciprocal tariffs on many countries
next week.
"Anytime you play a game of chicken which is very clearly
what Trump is doing," said Michael Green, chief strategist at
Simplify Asset Management in Philadelphia, "What if somebody
decides to go too far and we end up with a car crash?"
"Ultimately, what Trump is taking advantage of is a very
unbalanced negotiation at the end of the day, the customer is
always right," Green added. "And for the vast majority of the
world, the U.S. is the primary customer."
Late Thursday, Amazon ( AMZN ) reported disappointing growth
in its cloud computing segment and lower-than-expected first
quarter revenue and profit.
Similar disappointments from Microsoft ( MSFT ) and Alphabet
earlier in the week fueled suspicions the megacap tech
and tech-adjacent stocks are losing momentum.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 383.16
points, or 0.86%, to 44,361.10, the S&P 500 fell 49.75
points, or 0.82%, to 6,033.69 and the Nasdaq Composite
fell 262.35 points, or 1.33%, to 19,528.56.
European shares followed U.S. stocks lower as investors grew
increasingly skittish over the possibility of an escalating
trade war, while a dire profit warning forecast from Porsche
further dampened risk appetite.
MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe
fell 5.44 points, or 0.63%, to 869.85.
The STOXX 600 index fell 0.38%, while Europe's
broad FTSEurofirst 300 index fell 8.54 points, or 0.39%
Emerging market stocks rose 4.35 points, or 0.39%, to
1,106.60. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside
Japan closed higher by 0.41%, to 582.40, while
Japan's Nikkei fell 279.51 points, or 0.72%, to
38,787.02.
U.S. Treasury yields rose on the strength of upward
revisions to previous-month job adds and a surprise decline in
the unemployment rate, despite the job report's disappointing
headline number.
The yield on benchmark U.S. 10-year notes
rose 5.3 basis points to 4.491%, from 4.438% late on Thursday.
The 30-year bond yield rose 4.9 basis points to
4.6956% from 4.647% late on Thursday.
The 2-year note yield, which typically moves in
step with interest rate expectations for the Federal Reserve,
rose 6.9 basis points to 4.277%, from 4.208% late on Thursday.
The dollar gained ground in choppy trading in the wake of
the jobs report, which appeared to support the U.S. Federal
Reserve's rationale for holding off on rate cuts for the time
being.
The dollar index, which measures the greenback
against a basket of currencies including the yen and the euro,
rose 0.35% to 108.05, with the euro down 0.47% at
$1.0332.
The Japanese yen weakened 0.05% against the greenback
to 151.51 per dollar.
Sterling weakened 0.18% to $1.2411.
The Mexican peso weakened 0.27% versus the dollar at
20.528.
The Canadian dollar strengthened 0.17% versus the
greenback to C$1.43 per dollar.
In cryptocurrencies, bitcoin gained 0.20% to
$97,017.23. Ethereum declined 1.61% to $2,665.18.
Oil prices advanced after new sanctions were imposed on
Iran's crude exports, but remained on track for their third
consecutive weekly decline due to tariff worries.
U.S. crude rose 0.55% to settle at $71.00 per barrel,
while Brent settled at $74.66 per barrel, up 0.50% on
the day.
Gold resumed its uphill climb as renewed trade jitters added
luster to the safe-haven metal.
Spot gold rose 0.14% to $2,860.52 an ounce. U.S. gold
futures rose 0.26% to $2,863.50 an ounce.