U.S. stocks closed lower on Friday, forcing all three major indexes to register the largest weekly percentage losses in years, after a weak jobs report kept investors questioning how much the Federal Reserve would lower interest rates in coming weeks.
For the week, the S&P 500 lost 4.25% and the Dow fell 2.93%. Both were their largest weekly percentage losses since March 2023. The Nasdaq declined 5.77% for the week, which was the biggest weekly percentage loss since January 2022.
U.S. employers added a disappointing 142,000 jobs in August, below Bloomberg’s consensus estimate of 163,000 jobs. July was revised down to 89,000, also below estimates. The unemployment rate edged down to 4.2% from July’s 4.3%.
