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U.S. equities fell on Friday to cap their third straight weekly decline, after a solid August jobs report failed to ease fears that the Federal Reserve would keep aggressively hiking interest rates to fight inflation.
The Dow Jones Industrials index gave up big gains to fall erased a 370-point gain and finished the session lower by 337.98 points, or 1.1%, to 31,318.44.
The S&P 500 went south 42.59 points, or 1.1%, to 3,924.26, its lowest close since July.
The NASDAQ Composite dropped 154.26 points, or 1.3%, to 11,630.86, recording its first six-day losing streak since 2019.
All the major averages were lower to end the week, making it their third negative week in a row after slumping in the final days of August and giving up more than half of their summer rally. The Dow plumbed 3% and the S&P lost 3.3%, while the NASDAQ fell 4.2%.
Shares of retailer Lululemon jumped 6.7% to $314.17, after reporting quarterly results that beat Wall Street’s expectations.
Investors were comforted by the highly anticipated jobs report, which showed the economy added 315,000 jobs for the month, just under the Dow Jones estimate for 318,000. One expert called it a “Goldilocks” report.
The unemployment rate rose to 3.7%, two-10ths of a percentage point higher than expectations.
The August report is particularly important because it’s one of the last major economic reports the Fed will weigh before it raises rates at its September meeting. This data point could help the central bank determine whether a 75-basis-point hike.
The last major economic report of note is August CPI on Sept. 13 and is more likely to determine how aggressive the Fed needs to be in the near term.
Treasury prices muscled higher, lowering yields to 3.19% from Thursday’s 3.26%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite direction.
Oil prices regained 36 cents to $86.97 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices climbed $11.70 to $1,721.00 U.S. an ounce.
