Stock futures plummeted on Friday morning as traders evaluated September’s jobs report, which showed the unemployment rate continuing to fall and sparked a hike in interest rates.
Dow Jones Industrial Average futures shed 221 points, or 0.8%. S&P 500 futures fell 1.1%, while futures tied to the Nasdaq 100 dipped 1.6%.
Friday’s jobs numbers showed the U.S. economy added 263,000 jobs in September, slightly below a Dow Jones estimate of 275,000. Nonetheless, the unemployment rate came in at 3.5%, down from the 3.7% in the previous month.
“While the data was about as expected, the drop in the unemployment rate is seemingly what the markets are obsessed with because of what it means for the Fed,” said Bleakley Financial chief investment officer Peter Boockvar. “When combined with the low level of initial jobless claims, the pace of firing’s remains muted and this of course gets the Fed all fired up about continuing with its aggressive rate hikes.”
The plummeting unemployment rate sparked a jump in rates, consequently weighing on futures. The 2-year year Treasury yield added 8 basis points to 4.31%. (1 basis point equals 0.01%.)
