Stocks on Wall Street Slip
A currency trader watches monitors near the screens showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), top left, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won, top center, at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, April 10, 2023. Shares were mostly higher in Asia on Monday after a report Friday showed resilience in the U.S. jobs market.
Wall Street is slipping Monday in the first trading for stocks after a report raised speculation the Federal Reserve may tap the brakes a little harder on the economy.
The S&P 500 was 0.6% lower in early trading. It did not trade on Friday, when the U.S. government said that job growth across the economy slowed a touch more than expected last month but remains resilient.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 53 points, or 0.2%, at 33,432, as of 9:45 a.m. Eastern time, while the Nasdaq composite was 1.1% lower.
Stocks were catching up to the bond market, where yields rose Friday on expectations the jobs data would push the Fed to raise interest rates at its next meeting. The Fed has already hiked rates at a furious pace over the last year in hopes of driving down inflation.
Higher rates can undercut inflation, but only by slowing the entire economy in one fell swoop. That raises the risk of a recession in the future and drags down prices for stocks, bonds and other investments.
