Wall Street suffered its worst weekly drop since March 2023 after another disappointing U.S. jobs report revived concerns that the world’s largest economy is cooling and the U.S. Federal Reserve is moving too slowly to save it.
The S&P 500 lost 1,73% to 5.408,42 points. The Nasdaq Composite registered the greatest devaluation, when it gave way 2,55% to 16.690,83 points. The Dow Jones caiu 1,01% to 40.345,41 points.
“Markets have turned their attention to the degree of Fed easing and how quickly the economy is slowing,” Scott Wren of the Wells Fargo Investment Institute told Bloomberg.
New job creation stood at 142,000 — about 20,000 jobs below expectations — in August, leaving the three-month average at its lowest level since mid-2020. The unemployment rate fell to 4.2% — the first decline in five months. Steven Blitz of TS Lombard told Bloomberg that “the August jobs data continues to show that the economy is running out of resources and is approaching an inflection point.”
Attention now turns to the Fed meeting in Washington, which will begin on September 17, and which is expected to see the start of monetary policy easing in the country. Analysts are now questioning whether a 25 basis point cut in key rates will be enough given the new economic data coming from across the Atlantic – and some are already betting on a 50 basis point cut in interest rates.
Among the “big tech”, Nvidia slipped 4.09%, Alphabet fell 4.08%, Amazon sank 3.65%, Meta fell 3.21%, Microsoft lost 1.64%, and Apple fell 0.70%.
Source: www.jornaldenegocios.pt
