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U.S. stocks decline after soft jobs report

Xinhua, May 7, 2016 Adjust font size:

U.S. stocks traded lower in the morning session Friday as the country's nonfarm payrolls jobs report for April came out worse than expected.

By midday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 27.53 points, or 0.16 percent, to 17,633.18. The S&P 500 lost 7.24 points, or 0.35 percent, to 2,043.39. The Nasdaq Composite Index was down 28.51 points, or 0.60 percent, to 4,688.58.

U.S. total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 160,000 in April, well below the market consensus of 200,000, the Labor Department reported Friday. The unemployment rate was unchanged at 5.0 percent in April, also missing the market estimate of 4.9 percent.

In April, average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls increased by 8 cents to 25.53 U.S. dollars, following an increase of 6 cents in March. Over the year, average hourly earnings have risen by 2.5 percent.

Analysts thought that the U.S. Federal Reserve is likely to stay pat on raising interest rates over the coming months after the disappointing jobs data.

"Given Yellen's cautious nature, wait and see is likely what the FOMC will do in June if the May report is weak, but there' s a whole month to get through before we find out," said Chris Low, chief economist at FTN Financial, in a note.

In corporate news, shares of Yelp Inc. spiked over 18 percent around midday Friday after the U.S. consumer review website operator delivered much-better-than-expected quarterly results.

On Thursday, U.S. stocks closed narrowly mixed as investors eyed choppy trading in oil market while digesting quarterly earnings reports. Endit