Stocks slump on latest tariffs, soft jobs data
U.S. job growth slowed more than expected in July
(Updates to market close)
NEW YORK, Aug 1 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks slumped on Friday, with the S&P on track for its biggest daily percentage decline in more than three months as new U.S. tariffs on dozens of trading partners and a surprisingly weak jobs report spurred selling pressure. Also weighing on equities was a tumble in Amazon.com shares after the company posted quarterly results but failed to meet lofty expectations for its Amazon Web Services cloud computing unit. Just hours before the tariff deadline on Friday, President Donald Trump signed an executive order imposing duties on U.S. imports from countries, including Canada, Brazil, India and Taiwan, in his latest round of levies as countries attempted to seek ways to reach better deals. Further denting confidence in the economic picture, data showed U.S. job growth slowed more than expected in July while the prior month's report was revised sharply lower, indicating the labor market may be starting to crack.
The report significantly pushed up expectations the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates at its September meeting.
"There's no way to pretty-up this report. Previous months were revised significantly lower where the labor market has been on stall-speed," said Brian Jacobsen, Chief Economist at Annex Wealth Management in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin.
"Last year the Fed messed up by not cutting in July so they did a catch-up cut at their next meeting. They'll likely have to do the same thing this year."
According to preliminary data, the S&P 500 lost 101.60 points, or 1.60%, to end at 6,237.79 points, while the Nasdaq Composite lost 472.78 points, or 2.24%, to 20,649.67. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 543.97 points, or 1.23%, to 43,587.01. Market expectations the Fed will cut rates by at least 25 basis points at its September meeting stood at 80.9%, according to CME's FedWatch Tool, up from 37.7% in the prior session. Other data from the Institute for Supply Management showed U.S. manufacturing contracted for a fifth straight month in July and factory employment dropped to the lowest level in five years. Both the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq recorded their biggest single-day percentage declines since April 21 and all three major indexes were on track for weekly losses. The CBOE Volatility Index, also known as Wall Street's fear gauge, climbed to as much as 21.90, its highest since June 23. Amazon was the biggest drag on the Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq and pushed the consumer discretionary index, down nearly 4% as the worst performing of the 11 major S&P 500 sectors. Also reporting earnings was Apple, which fell after it posted a current-quarter revenue forecast well above Wall Street estimates, but CEO Tim Cook warned U.S. tariffs would add $1.1 billion in costs over the period. Stocks briefly extended declines after Trump said he ordered the commissioner of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Erika L. McEntarfer, to be fired in the wake of the jobs data. In contrast to the broad declines, Reddit surged after it reported quarterly results that exceeded Street expectations, boosted by an AI-focused advertising strategy and strong user engagement.
(Reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak, additional reporting by Nikhil Sharma and Sukriti Gupta in Bengaluru)
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