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Stocks dropped sharply on Friday, concluding what has been a wild week for Wall Street.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted 558.72 points, or 2.3%, to close Friday at 24,388.95
The S&P 500 faded 62.87 points, or 2.3%, to 2,633.08
The NASDAQ plunged 219.01 points, or 3.1%, to 6,969.25
For the week, the major indexes all dropped more than 4%. Thursday’s session included a violent drop of nearly 800 points, followed by a strong rebound from those levels.
Shares of large-cap tech companies led the way lower. Facebook, Amazon, Netflix and Google-parent Alphabet all traded lower. Apple’s stock also fell 3.6%— erasing its gains for the year — after Morgan Stanley cut its price target on the tech giant’s shares, citing weakening iPhone sales.
The U.S. economy added 155,000 jobs last month. Economists polled by Dow Jones expected a gain of 198,000 jobs. Wage growth also missed estimates.
Indexes fell to their lows of the day after the Wall Street Journal reported federal prosecutors are expected to bring charges against Chinese hackers. The hackers are linked to the Chinese government and were allegedly trying to break into technology service providers in the U.S.
Also, the Wall Street Journal reported the Federal Reserve is considering whether to signal a wait-and-see approach to rate hikes at its upcoming meeting this month. The report said Fed officials do not know what their next move on rates will be after December.
Prices for the benchmark for the 10-year U.S. Treasury were higher, lowering yields to 2.86% from Thursday’s 2.89%. Treasury prices move in opposite directions.
Oil prices gained $1.03 to $52.52 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices surged $11.20 to $1,254.80 U.S. an ounce.
