Stock market today
At 1:50 PM, Friday, April 3, 2020, ET time the US stock market is moving lower. All major stock indexes have losses of over 2%. Dow Jones today is down more than 400 points. This is the latest stock market update:
S&P 500: 2,469.42,-57.48(-2.27%)
Dow 30: 20,934.14,-479.30(-2.24%)
Nasdaq: 7,308.41,-178.90(-2.39%)
Russell 2000: 1,038.22,-47.59(-4.38%)
Stock market news
Earlier today a disappointing jobs report set the tone for today’s trading session.
“Stocks fell Friday as market participants digested mounting signals of economic devastation amid the still-escalating coronavirus pandemic. The March U.S. jobs report came in far weaker than expected.
The Department of Labor’s official jobs report Friday reflected far greater job losses in March than expected – and the report only captured data through the 12th of the month, before much of the country went on lockdown in response to the coronavirus pandemic. With the pandemic continuing unabated and social distancing measures set to remain in place longer than initially anticipated, economists are bracing for data to deteriorate much more sharply in prints to come.”
“The U.S. economy shed jobs for the first time in a decade in March and the unemployment rate rose more than expected, as the coronavirus pandemic began to erode domestic economic activity.
The Department of Labor released its monthly jobs report at 8:30 a.m. ET Friday. Here were the main metrics from the report, compared to consensus data compiled by Bloomberg:
Change in non-farm payrolls, March: -701,000 vs. -100,000 expected and +275,000 in February
Unemployment rate, March: 4.4% vs. 3.8% expected and 3.5% in February
Average hourly earnings, month on month: 0.4% vs. 0.2% expected and 0.3% in February
Average hourly earnings, year on year: 3.1% vs. +3.0% expected and +3.0% in February”.
