Jobs report, fears of future sink markets

The stock market’s first reaction to Friday’s stunningly bad jobs report was to take it in stride. But Wall Street slid through the day as investors looked ahead to the likelihood worse numbers are on the way.

Stocks initially held steady after the government said U.S. employers cut 701,000 more jobs than they added last month, the first drop in nearly a decade. Many businesses have slammed to a halt amid attempts to slow the spread of the coronavirus outbreak, and investors were fully expecting to see such abysmal numbers.

But the market headed lower as the day progressed and, as has become typical in recent Fridays, investors looked to get out of stocks before the weekend, which could be filled with even more bad news.

The S&P 500 fell 38.25 points, or 1.5%, and closed at 2,488.65. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 360.91 points, or 1.7%, and closed at 21,052.53, while the Nasdaq was down 114.23 points, or 1.5%, to 7,373.08. Small-company stocks fell far more than the rest of the market. The Russell 2000 index lost 33.76 points, or 3.1%, to 1,052.05.

Potentially scary events on the calendar include Thursday’s weekly report on applications for unemployment benefits, which has been the closest thing to a real-time measure of how ferociously layoffs have swept the country. Companies will also soon begin reporting their profit results for the first three months of the year. Next month’s jobs report may even show that the American economy has wiped away the last of the 22.8 million jobs created during its nearly decade-long hiring streak.