U.S. stocks open modestly lower on jobs report

U.S. stocks opened narrowly lower on Monday as investors digested Friday' s strong jobs data.

Jobs report increased expectations that the Federal Reserve could raise interest rates as soon as September, which has weighed on market sentiment.

"In fact, some FOMC (Federal Open Market Committee) members will be pushing to start at the June meeting. We continue to expect they will wait until September, but July should not be ruled out," said Chris Low, chief economist at FTN Financial, in a note.

The U.S. job market continued its steady growth momentum in May, further heating market debate over the timing for the central bank' s first interest rate hike in almost nine years.

U.S. total nonfarm payroll employment added 280,000 in May, well above market consensus, and the unemployment rate was essentially unchanged at 5.5 percent, the U.S. Labor Department said Friday.

Shortly after the opening bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 11.08 points, or 0.06 percent, to 17,838.38. The S&P 500 was down 1.43 points, or 0.07 percent, to 2,091.40. The Nasdaq Composite Index ticked down 1.53 points, or 0.03 percent, to 5,066.93.

U.S. stocks closed mixed on Friday, as investors were assessing impacts of the much better-than-expected jobs report and Greek debt crisis. Endi