Yahoo Finance Stocks Fall After Upbeat Jobs Report
U.S. Market
Stocks were lower this morning after a better-than-expected jobs report.
The U.S. economy added 295,000 jobs in February, well above the 240,000 expected by economists. The unemployment rate fell to 5.5% from 5.7% due to people dropping out of the workforce. The report raised expectations that the Fed would raise short-term rates sooner rather than later.
The U.S. trade deficit shrank 8.4% to $41.8 billion in January from the previous month. Exports fell 2.9% in the month while imports were off 3.9%.
At midday the Dow and S&P 500 were each down 1.1% while the Nasdaq was off 0.9%.
Stocks on the Move
Shares of Staples (SPLS) were down 3% after the firm reported fourth-quarter results. The firm said it lost 41 cents a share in the quarter as management took a write-down on its international businesses. Excluding charges, the firm’s earnings were in line with expectations as total sales fell 3.7%.
The Fed announced late Thursday that all 31 banks subject to its stress test passed both the severely adverse and adverse stress-case scenarios. The results were as expected, and the Fed will now move to approving the bank’s capital plan for the year.
Foreign Markets
European shares were mixed today. The FTSE 100 was off 0.7%, the Paris CAC was up 0.1% while Germany’s DAX was 0.4% higher.
Asian markets were also mixed. The Shanghai Composite was down 0.2%, the Hang Seng was off 0.1% while the Nikkei 225 rose 1.2% on the day.
