Stocks open lower after shock July jobs report

Stocks finished mixed on Friday as bond yields soared following the stronger-than-expected July jobs report.

At the closing bell, the tech-heavy Nasdaq was the day’s biggest laggard among the equity indexes, falling 0.5%, while the S&P 500 fell 0.2%, and the Dow rose 0.2%.

In July, the U.S. economy added 528,000 jobs as the unemployment rate fell to 3.5%. Economists expected job growth would total just 250,000 last month.

In the bond market, the story that July’s jobs data will result in further rate hikes has been a bit plainer to see, with the U.S. 10-year note yield sitting near 2.84% on Friday, up about 30 basis points from low earlier this week.

The yield curve also continues to move into a deeper inversion, with the spread between 2-year and 10-year yields settling at 40 basis points, or 0.40%, on Friday. This push higher in yields also resulted in a rally in the dollar.

The stock market’s initial reaction saw stocks agree with bonds, and equities were uniformly lower.

Most economists see this report keeping the Federal Reserve on track to continue with aggressive interest rate hikes, likely increasing rates by 0.75% in September after increases of the same magnitude in June and July.

Since mid-June, the S&P 500 has gained over 10% as investors grew optimistic a potential “pivot,” or a slowdown in the pace of rate hikes from the Fed, could be coming in the months ahead.

Investors are also watching developments in commodities markets, with WTI crude oil prices — the U.S. benchmark — falling below $89 a barrel on Thursday to their lowest levels since early February. Crude oil prices were little-changed on Friday.

The price of gas in the U.S. has now declined for 50 straight days.

On the individual stock side, Friday action showed outsized volatility continues in a number of stocks, with shares of Bed, Bath & Beyond gaining more than 32% on no news.

Meanwhile, meme darling AMC rose 18% after announcing its most recent quarterly results and announcing plans to issue a preferred share dividend that will trade under the ticker “APE.”

Story continues

Shares of iRobot were up more than 19% after Amazon announced plans to buy the Roomba maker for $1.7 billion.

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