NEW YORK (dpa-AFX) – Increased interest rate concerns following a surprisingly strong US labor market report put the New York stock exchanges under pressure on Friday. Three quarters of an hour after the start of trading, the leading index Dow Jones Industrial fell by 1.33 percent to 42,067.38 points. The market-wide S&P 500 lost 1.70 percent to 5,817.67 points. The technology-heavy NASDAQ 100 even saw a discount of 2.13 percent to 20,729.03 points.
For the shortened stock market week, the Dow and Nasdaq 100 are heading for losses of 1.6 and 2.8 percent respectively. There was no trading in New York on Thursday because of the day of mourning in honor of the late former US President Jimmy Carter.
In the USA, employment rose more than expected in December and the unemployment rate surprisingly fell slightly. The US Federal Reserve Bank therefore has no reason to further reduce interest rates for the time being, said VP Bank chief economist Thomas Gitzel./gl/he