Wall Street took a downturn on Friday, as stocks extended Thursday's sell off and led the S&P 500 to its worst single-session drop in almost three months. Friday's session was a volatile one, with the Nasdaq widely underperforming as tech shares lagged and the Dow falling as much as 600 points in earlier trade. While most stocks ended the session higher than earlier lows, each of the three major market indices ended the week deeply in lows. The Dow Jones fell 1.8% this week, the S&P 500 closed 2.3% lower, and the Nasdaq plummeted nearly 4% in its worst week since March.
Meanwhile, the U.S. economy added 1.371 million jobs in August, exceeding expectations for 1.35 million, as more employers begin to hire from the initial fallout from the coronavirus pandemic. Still, the pace of job market recovery is still stubbornly slow. August's gains follow Julys 1.734 million and June's record 4.7 million. According to the Labor Department, the overall unemployment rate has improved to 8.4%, the first reading below 10% since March.
Here's how the market settled to close the week:
S&P 500 Index
Dow Jones Industrial Average
Nasdaq Composite Index
For Major Stock News, investors moved their recent tech earnings back into reliable, but picked out stocks like big banks--Bank of America
For Sector Performance, most industries fell with the broader market, with only Financials +0.79%, Industrials +0.27% and Materials +0.10% closing with gains. The remaining negative performance was as follows: Losers Communication Services -1.87%, Consumer Discretionary -1.35%, Information Technology -1.24%, Health Care -0.69%, Utilities -0.49%, Real Estate -0.45%, Energy -0.35% and Consumer Staples -0.24%.
For Commodities and Currency, the U.S. Dollar
For the week ahead, U.S. markets will be closed on Monday for the Labor Day holiday. Normal trading hours will resume on Tuesday.