At the close, the Dow Jones index lost more than 200 points and fell 0.54 percent to 40,755.75 points.
While the S&P 500 index fell 0.3 percent to 5,503.41 points, the Nasdaq index gained 0.25 percent to 17,127.66 points.
While investors were looking for signals about the health of the country’s economy in the announced labor force data, a mixed trend was observed in the stock markets.
Private sector employment in the country recorded the lowest increase since January 2021, with 99 thousand people in August.
The US 10-year Treasury bond yield fell to 3.72% as the data reinforced expectations that the US Federal Reserve (Fed) will make a large-scale interest rate cut this year.
Analysts said that following yesterday’s below-expected job openings, private sector employment data released today reinforced signs of a cooling in the labor market.
Analysts said investors are focusing on the employment report to be released tomorrow, and that the data could provide more clues about the extent of the Fed’s interest rate cut this month.
The number of people applying for unemployment benefits for the first time in the US also fell to 227,000 in the week ending August 31, below market expectations.
Non-agricultural labor productivity in the country increased by 2.5 percent in the second quarter of 2024 compared to the previous quarter, above expectations.
Unit labor costs, one of the inflation indicators monitored by the Fed, increased by 0.3 percent annually in the April-June period, the lowest increase since the fourth quarter of 2013.
The Institute for Supply Management’s (ISM) services sector Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) in the US exceeded market expectations in August, rising by 0.1 points on a monthly basis to 51.5.
S&P Global’s final services sector PMI data for August was also revised to 55.7. This value indicated the fastest increase in services sector activity in the country since March 2022.
On the other hand, Tesla’s shares gained nearly 5 percent after it announced plans to launch autonomous vehicles in Europe and China next year.
Shares of Frontier Communications, which Verizon said it will acquire in a deal valued at $20 billion, fell 9.5 percent, while Verizon shares fell 0.4 percent.
Source: www.dunya.com
