- US stocks slid lower on Friday, dragged down by a sell-off in tech.
- The Nasdaq tumbled after touching record highs, pulled down by a sharp drop for Nvidia.
US stocks tumbled on Friday, dragged down by a sell-off in tech.
The Nasdaq ended down more than 1% after touching an all-time high earlier in the day. Stoking the rout was Nvidia, which dropped by 5.5%.
Stocks fizzled after fresh jobs data rolled in hotter than expected on Friday, but included signs of a cooling economy. The US added 275,000 new jobs in February, which blew past estimates of 200,000. At the same time, downward revisions to prior months' figures pushed the unemployment rate up to 3.9%, the highest level in two years. Meanwhile, wage growth slowed down during the month.
Those factors bode well for rate cuts but are an acknowledgement that the economy may finally be slowing after a period of stunning strength throughout all of last year.
All eyes will shift to the consumer price index report slated for next Tuesday. Inflation in January came in at 3.1%, higher than expected.
Here's where US indexes stood at the closing bell at 4:00 p.m. on Friday:
- S&P 500: 5,123.69, down 0.65%
- Dow Jones Industrial Average: 38,722.69, down 0.18% (-68.66 points)
- Nasdaq Composite: 16,085.11, down 1.16%
Here's what else is going on:
- The stock market is set up for panic, and it could spark a steep crash, portfolio manager says.
- Americans saw their net worth soar to records last year thanks to the stock market.
- 2 signals suggest breadth in the stock market is healthy despite mega-cap tech dominance.
- 100 years of history shows today's tech-heavy stock market still has room to run, Goldman Sachs says.
In commodities, bonds, and crypto:
- Oil prices fell, with West Texas Intermediate down 1.29% to $77.91 a barrel. Brent crude, the international benchmark, dipped 1.23% to $81.94 a barrel.
- Gold rose 0.82% to $2,183 per ounce.
- The 10-year Treasury yield slipped one basis point to 4.077%.
- Bitcoin rose by 2.34% to $69,327.75.