US STOCKS-Wall Street closes lower after US jobs report, Apple weighs

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04/08/2023 21:01

(Updated at 4 p.m. market close)

        * 
      U.S. jobs growth slows in July
    

        * 
      IPhone sales slump weighs on Apple
    

        * 
      Amazon sees bright Q3 on resilient cloud sales, shopping
trends
    

        * 
      Indexes down: Dow, S&P, Nasdaq
    

  
    By Echo Wang
       Aug 4 (Reuters) - 
    Wall Street fell on Friday after a report of slowing U.S.
labor market growth, and all three major indexes posted weekly
losses as investors braced for more possible downside surprises
a day after disappointing earnings from Apple.   
  
        The trading session was choppy, with the indexes rising
in the morning, then wavering before turning negative. Apple
shares were down more than 4%, weighing down the S&P 500.
  
        On the bond market, the yield on the 10-year U.S.
Treasury edged lower in afternoon trading.
  
    "There's still a lot of uncertainty around geopolitical
concerns, Ukraine war, (and) China issues”, said Greg Bassuk,
chief executive officer of AXS Investments in New York, He said
Friday's decline was "more about investors resetting and
positioning for potential downside surprises."
        The Labor Department reported that 
    U.S. employers
     added 187,000 jobs in July. Data for June additions was
revised lower to 185,000 jobs, from 209,000 reported previously.

    
    
    Average hourly earnings rose 0.4% in July, unchanged from
the previous month, exceeding expectations, taking the
year-on-year increase in wages to 4.4%. 
    The yield on the 10-year benchmark Treasury note  US10YT=RR 
dipped after the jobs data, partly boosting some megacap stocks.
    Buoying the S&P 500 index, Amazon.com shares  AMZN.O  rose
after the company issued an upbeat third-quarter outlook.
Apple's shares  AAPL.O  dipped as the iPhone maker forecast a
continued slide in sales.
        "Those big bellwether companies really have the
potential to cause investor jitters even though overall the
trajectory and direction of both the economy and corporate
earnings seems to be positive moving into August." Said Bassuk.
  
    Shares of other big tech companies, Microsoft  MSFT.O ,
Alphabet  GOOGL.O  and Snowflake  SNOW.N  all rose after
Amazon's cloud business segment beat sales estimates.
    According to preliminary data, the S&P 500  .SPX  lost 23.28
points, or 0.52%, to end at 4,478.61 points, while the Nasdaq
Composite  .IXIC  lost 50.48 points, or 0.36%, to 13,909.24. The
Dow Jones Industrial Average  .DJI  fell 148.69 points, or
0.42%, to 35,073.53.
    The weekly declines for the S&P and Nasdaq were the biggest
since March, with some investors taking profits after five
months of gains due to economic data, disappointing earnings and
rising Treasury yields.
    Of the 422 companies in the S&P 500 that have reported
quarterly earnings as of Friday, 79.1% have surpassed autonomous
expectations, according to Refinitiv data.

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Monthly change in U.S. jobs    https://tmsnrt.rs/3OFX0Zi
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 (Reporting by Echo Wang in New York, Shubham Batra and Bansari
Mayur Kamdar in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D'Souza, Shounak
Dasgupta, Shinjini Ganguli, Louise Heavens and David Gregorio)
 ((Shubham.Batra@thomsonreuters.com))