The US markets ended in red on Friday with Dow and Nasdaq falling to their lowest levels in over three months, while the S&P 500 touched a two-month closing low. Markets witnessed selling pressure amid rise in crude oil prices as U.S. crude oil futures surged over $90 per barrel. Traders were worried as war between Israel, the U.S., and Iran reached its one-week mark, Israel ramped up air strikes across Iran, while U.S. said its attacks on Iran are going to surge dramatically. Some cautiousness also came as a closely watched Labor Department report showed an unpredictable fall in U.S. unemployment in February. The report said non-farm payroll employment slumped by 92,000 jobs in February after jumping by a downwardly revised 126,000 jobs in January. Street had expected employment to increase by 60,000 jobs compared to the addition of 130,000 jobs originally reported for the previous month. The Labor Department also said the unemployment rate ticked up to 4.4 percent in February from 4.3 percent in January, in line with street estimates.
Meanwhile, a report released by the Commerce Department showed that modest decrease by retail sales in the U.S. in the month of January. The Commerce Department said retail sales slipped by 0.2 percent in January after coming in unchanged in December. The street had expected retail sales to fall by 0.4 percent. On the sectoral front, semiconductor stocks moved sharply lower over the course of the session, dragging the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index down by 3.9 percent to its lowest closing level in almost two months.
Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 453.19 points or 0.95 percent to 47,501.55, Nasdaq decreased 361.30 points or 1.59 percent to 22387.67 and S&P 500 fell 90.69 points or 1.33 percent to 6,740.02.
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