Investing.com – Wall Street opened lower on Friday after news that the U.S. economy created more jobs than expected, dampening hopes that the Federal Reserve would cut rates aggressively at the end of the month.
The S&P 500 was down 19 points or 0.7% by 9:57 AM ET (13:57 GMT). The Dow lost 152 points or 0.6% and the Nasdaq composite slipped 55 points or 0.7%.
"It is still more likely than not that the Fed will cut rates but the odds have decreased somewhat," said Scott Brown, chief economist at Raymond James in St. Petersburg, Florida.
"The 50 basis point cut should be priced out completely at this point.”
Nonfarm payrolls rose by 224,000 in June, well above consensus expectations for 160,000 and a sharp rebound from a downwardly-revised 72,000 in May.
Markets expect the central bank to ease monetary policy this year due to concerns over the damage caused by the U.S.-China trade war.
Banking stocks were higher on the prospect of interest rates staying higher for longer, with Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) up 1.2%, JP Morgan rising 0.6% and Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) gained 1%.
Semiconductor companies struggled after Korean giant Samsung (KS:005930) said it expects second-quarter profit to have fallen dramatically. Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) fell 2.0%, while Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM) slipped 1.4% and Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) lost 1.9%.
Meanwhile, Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) was down 0.6% after the U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority told the e-commerce giant to pause its integration with meal delivery service Deliveroo, while it decides whether or not to launch an investigation into a possible competition breach.
In commodities, crude oil gained 0.5% to $57.62 a barrel. Gold futures slumped 2.1% to $1,391.25 a troy ounce, while the U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, surged 0.6% to 96.930, its highest in over three weeks.
-Reuters contributed to this report