(Recasts with U.S. markets open; changes byline, dateline; previous LONDON)
By Suzanne Barlyn
NEW YORK, March 5 (Reuters) – A gauge of global equity markets was little changed on Friday and Wall Street gave back some of its early gains as investors took stock of a report that at first blush showed faster-than-expected U.S. jobs growth but was also a reminder that the recovery will still take time.
It has been a frantic Friday for traders across the globe as Asian markets dropped overnight and MSCI’s all-country index was on its longest losing streak in six months.
“The economy is still going through the transition from the virus to the vaccine, and it is a bit rougher than you would like,” said Steven Ricchiuto, U.S. chief economist at Mizuho Securities USA in New York.
“It tells the Federal Reserve in particular that you have to remain with your foot on the accelerator, but that not necessarily you have to put more pressure on that accelerator,” Ricchiuto said.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 75.2 points, or 0.24%, to 30,999.34, the S&P 500 lost 2.26 points, or 0.06%, to 3,766.21 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 129.44 points, or 1.02%, to 12,594.03.
The pan-European STOXX 600 index lost 0.40% and MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe shed 0.60%.
Emerging market stocks lost 0.96%. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan closed 1.19% lower, while Japan’s Nikkei lost 0.23%.
The U.S. economy created more jobs than expected in February as falling new…
