The Labor Department's closely watched monthly employment report came in much weaker than expected job growth in the month of August, as the delta variant of the coronavirus is weighing on the labor market, although the data could also lead the Federal Reserve to push back its plans to begin scaling back stimulus. The labor market remains the key touchstone for the Fed, with Chair Jerome Powell hinting last week that reaching full employment was a pre-requisite for the central bank to start paring back its asset purchases.
At the close of trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average index declined 74.73 points, or 0.21%, to 35,369.09. The S&P 500 index fell 1.52 points, or 0.03%, to 4,535.43. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index was up 32.34 points, or 0.21%, to 15,363.52. For the week, the Nasdaq jumped by 1.5% and the S&P 500 advance by 0.6%, although the Dow slipped by 0.2%. The US market will close on Monday in observance of the Labor Day holiday.
Total 5 of 11 S&P500 sectors inclined, while remaining 6 sectors closed down. Utilities (down 0.8%) sector was worst performer, followed by materials (down 0.69%), industrials (down 0.62%), and financials (down 0.58%) sectors, while Information technology (up 0.38%) sector was top gainer.
Total volume turnover on U.S. exchanges was 7.12 billion shares, down from previous session volume of 8.02 billion shares. In the NYSE exchange, 1332 issues advanced, 1911 issues declined, and 188 issues closed unchanged. In the NASDAQ, 1830 issues advanced, 2504 issues declined, and 209 issues unchanged.
ECONOMIC NEWS: U.S. hiring slowed sharply in August 2021 as the surging Delta variant dented the pace of the economic recovery. The U.S. economy added 235,000 jobs last month1, after soaring by an upwardly revised 1.053 million jobs in July, according to the Labor Department data released on Friday. Despite the much weaker than expected job growth, the unemployment rate fell to 5.2% in August from 5.4% in July.
Meanwhile, the Institute for Supply Management latest report showed U.S. service sector growth slowed from a record pace in the month of August. The ISM said its services PMI fell to 61.7 in August after reaching an all-time high of 64.1 in July, although a reading above 50 still indicates growth in the sector.
Among Indian ADR, Vedanta added 1.73% to $17.01, Dr Reddys Labs added 0.58% to $67.09, ICICI Bank added 0.2% to $19.79, Tata Motors added 1.46% to $20.20, INFOSYS added 1.39% to $24.03, and Wipro added 1.16% to $9.60. HDFC Bank fell 2.06% to $76.64 and WNS Holdings fell 0.16% to $83.28.
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