Jobs number scares stocks Investors were looking for a tame number to ease inflation fears, but what they got may have been too low. NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Stocks opened lower Friday after a key jobs report may have come in too weak for comfort. The Dow Jones industrial (Charts) average and the Nasdaq (Charts) lost 0.6 percent, while the broader Standard & Poor's (Charts) 500 fell about 0.2 percent just after the opening bell. Employers added a smaller-than-expected 121,000 new workers to their payrolls last month, the Labor Department said. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com had expected 160,000 jobs to have been created in June, up from 75,000 in May. Investors hoped for a tame jobs report that might help persuade the Federal Reserve to pause its interest rate hiking campaign, as the Fed has said any future increases will depend on the most recent data. Concern that the Fed will raise rates too high, cutting off cheap capital and crippling economic growth, has weighed on markets for months. But Friday's number may have been a tad too low, raising questions of economic growth all on its own. Light, sweet crude oil rose 43 cents to $75.57 a barrel in electronic trade, after hitting a fresh record high of $75.78, and Brent futures gained 62 cents at $74.70. Treasury prices rallied, lowering the yield on the 10-year note to 5.15 percent from 5.18 percent late Thursday. The dollar fell versus the yen and the euro. Overseas, Tokyo's Nikkei index edged lower, while stocks in Europe were down in morning trade. |
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