Solid jobs data, but stocks fall anyway

Aggressive interest rate hikes add to worry of recession

U.S. stocks fell broadly Friday and pulled major indexes into the red for the week as Wall Street focused on the downside of the still-strong U.S. jobs market.

A report showed employers hired more workers last month than economists expected. While that's a good sign for the economy amid worries about a possible recession, many investors saw it keeping the Federal Reserve on its path to hiking interest rates aggressively. Such moves would slow the economy in hopes of ultimately knocking down high inflation, and the Fed risks causing a recession if it moves too quickly or too far. In the meantime, higher interest rates put downward pressure on stocks and other investments.

The S&P 500 index fell 68.28 points, or 1.6%, to 4,108.54. It's a reversal from Thursday's market movements, when a narrower report on the U.S. jobs market came in weaker than expected. That bolstered speculation the Fed may consider a pause in raising rates later this year, and the hopes for a less-aggressive Fed sent stocks jumping.

The slide on Friday also dragged the benchmark S&P 500 into its eighth weekly loss in the last nine. The outlier in that stretch was last week, when stocks roared in part on speculation that the Fed would consider a pause in rate hikes in September.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 348.58 points, or 1%, to 32,899.70. The Nasdaq fell 304.16 points, or 2.5%, to 12,012.73.

Bitcoin also fell, while a measure of worry in the stock market rose, even though some glasshalf-full signals for inflationary pressures were buried within the jobs data.

Friday's comprehensive report from the U.S. government showed employers added 390,000 jobs last month, better than expectations for 322,500. That sent Treasury yields climbing, though they initially wobbled as investors moved from one knee-jerk reaction to another