Mixed lock on Wall Street after strong US jobs report

Stock markets in New York showed a mixed picture at the end of the trading day on Friday. Investors on Wall Street were mainly focused on the US government jobs report. Job growth in the US is very important to the Federal Reserve’s interest rate policy. A strong labor market gives the U.S. Federal Reserve more room to continue raising interest rates to combat high inflation.

According to the report, 528,000 new jobs were created in the world’s largest economy in July. That’s more than economists expected. The unemployment rate in the United States is now at 3.5 percent. This means that the US unemployment rate has fallen again, as it was in February 2020, the month before the Corona crisis was felt in the US.

The leading Dow-Jones index rose 0.2 percent to close at 32,803.47. The broad-based S&P 500 fell 0.2 percent to 4,145.19, while the tech gauge Nasdaq lost 0.5 percent to 12,657.55.

Tesla fell 6.6 percent. Shareholders of the electric car maker have approved the proposed stock split. In addition, CEO Elon Musk announced that he could announce the arrival of a new gigafactory this year.

Warner Bros. Discovery fell 16.5 percent after losing a billion dollars in the second quarter. The merger between AT&T and the entertainment arm of media giant Discovery Networks will see the company combine its two streaming services, HBO Max and Discovery+, next year.

DoorDash fell 1.3 percent, after paring gains earlier in the day. The food delivery service performed better than expected last quarter. The taxi service lifted almost 17 percent, beating market expectations. Beyond Meat gained 22 percent, despite weak numbers and prospects from a meat substitute producer.

The euro was at $1.0179 against $1.0164 in late European stock market trading. U.S. crude fell 0.2 percent to $88.36 a barrel. Brent crude was up 0.2 percent at $94.34 a barrel.