Wall Street benchmarks declined on Friday as a pullback in semiconductor equities halted recent gains, while robust employment data solidified expectations for sustained Federal Reserve monetary tightening.
As of 9:59 a.m. Eastern Time, the S&P 500 fell 1.1%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.3%, and the Nasdaq Composite fell 1.8%.
At the opening bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 48.1 points, or 0.09%, to 51610.02. The S&P 500 fell 47.0 points, or 0.62%, to 7537.36, while the Nasdaq Composite dropped 294.4 points, or 1.10%, to 26,536.593.
Leading the market downturn, Nvidia fell 3.1% while Broadcom dropped 3.9%.
The Labor Department reported an unexpected surge of 172,000 positions in May, demonstrating resilient hiring trends despite inflationary pressures impacting corporate and retail sectors.
Simultaneously, energy costs persisted at high levels due to the ongoing closure of the critical Strait of Hormuz transit corridor, worsening conflict-driven supply disruptions that endanger global growth and elevate inflation.
Bullion
Gold prices declined on Friday as robust US employment figures intensified expectations that the US central bank will potentially increase borrowing costs this year.
At 10:15 a.m. EDT (1415 GMT), spot gold was down 2.4% at $4,365.93 per ounce. US gold futures for August delivery fell 2.5% to $4,390.70.
Among other metals, spot silver fell 6.1% to $69.34 per ounce, platinum dropped 3.2% to $1,839.40, and palladium slid 1.9% to 1,295.75.
“We’ve got payrolls that came in fairly significantly over what was expected,” said Bart Melek, global head of commodity strategy at TD Securities.
“In light of the fact that we continue to have the war in Iran and very large energy prices and inflationary pressures, it makes it quite unlikely that the Fed is in any mood whatsoever to lower rates. The implication for gold here is that the cost of carry is getting quite high,” Melek added.
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