By STAN CHOE
NEW YORK (AP) — More losses are hitting Wall Street at the close of a brutal week, and U.S. stocks have erased earlier gains to fall after a nervously anticipated economic report came in close to expectations.
The S&P 500 was down 1% in midday trading after erasing an early gain of 0.6%. It’s coming off a punishing stretch where it swung at least 1%, up or down, in each of the last six days, and it’s on track for its worst week since 2022.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 340 points, or 0.8%, as of 11:45 a.m., and the Nasdaq composite was 1.4% lower.
The focus was on the job market, where the U.S. Labor Department said employers added 151,000 more jobs last month than they cut. That was slightly below economists’ expectations, but it was still an acceleration from January’s hiring.
U.S. stocks have been struggling, and the S&P 500 has dropped more than 7% from its all-time high set last month on worries that the U.S. economy’s growth may be slowing. Recent, discouraging surveys have shown the mood is souring for U.S. businesses and households because of uncertainty around President Donald Trump’s tariffs, but economists weren’t sure if that was translating into real pain for the economy and the job market.
While Friday’s jobs report did come in close to expectations, economists warned it contained concerning details underneath the surface that could imply more trouble ahead in future months. The number of people working part time who would rather be full time rose 10% in February from January, for example.
“The market might breathe a sigh of relief that the labor market was still looking healthy, but a deeper dive shows that spring could be a more challenging season,” said Brian Jacobsen, chief economist at Annex Wealth Management.
The whiplash actions from the White House on tariffs — first placing them on trading partners and then exempting some and then doing it again — have raised uncertainty for businesses. That sparked fears they might simply freeze in response and pull back on hiring. U.S. households, meanwhile, are bracing for much higher inflation because of tariffs, which is weakening their confidence and could hold back their spending. That would sap more energy from the economy.
The jobs report sent yields down in the bond market, where the 10-year Treasury yield fell to 4.23% from 4.28% late Thursday. It’s been sinking since January, when it was nearing 4.80%, as investors have ratcheted back their expectations for the U.S. economy’s growth.
The yield on the two-year Treasury note also continued its descent, which underscores building expectations among traders that the Federal Reserve will cut its main interest rate at least two or three times this year in order to prop up a slowing economy.
On Wall Street, Hewlett Packard Enterprises slumped 16.2% after reporting profit for the latest quarter that fell just short of analysts’ expectations. CEO Antonio Neri acknowledged that “we could have executed better in some areas in the quarter,” and the company gave a forecast for revenue in the current quarter that was weaker than expected.
Costco sank 7.2% after the retailer reported a weaker profit for the latest quarter than expected.
They helped offset Walgreens Boots Alliance, which rallied 6.9% after the pharmacy and drug store chain agreed to be acquired by private equity firm Sycamore Partners. The buyout would take the struggling chain private for the first time since 1927 and give it more flexibility to make changes to improve its business without worrying about Wall Street’s reaction.
Broadcom rose 3.7% after delivering stronger profit and revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected. The chip company also gave a forecast for upcoming revenue that topped analysts’ expectation, thanks in part to strong demand for its artificial-intelligence offerings.
After rocketing higher in Wall Street’s frenzy around AI, stocks across the industry have hit a wall this year as this year’s downturn hit hardest on the areas of the market that earlier seemed the most unstoppable. Broadcom’s stock had dropped more than 20% so far this year, before Friday, after having more than doubled in 2024.
In stock markets abroad, German stocks dropped 1.8% to give back some of the big gains from earlier in the week following a seismic shift in its policy on debt. The traditionally debt-averse German government appears willing to allow for much more borrowing.
Indexes fell 0.6% in Hong Kong and 0.3% in Shanghai after China reported slower than-expected-trade for January and February, with exports growing just 2.3% and imports sinking 8.4%, the government said. China’s trade data for the first two months of the year are usually combined to make up for distortions from Lunar New Year holidays.
South Korea’s Kospi fell 0.5% after a court ordered impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol to be released from jail, more than a month after he was arrested and indicted over his short-lived imposition of martial law.
AP Business Writers Matt Ott and Elaine Kurtenbach contributed.