Investing.com – Wall Street traded lower on Friday, with the S&P 500 struggling to stay in the positive for 2016 and the Dow making an attempt to trade up, after a disappointing employment report raised concern over the strength of the U.S. labor market and pushed back calls for the next rate hike from Federal Reserve (Fed), while oil staged a turnaround to continue a one-month rally.
At 15:34GMT, or 11:34AM ET, the Dow Jones slipped 3 points, or 0.02%, while the S&P 500 inched down 4 points, or 0.21%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite traded up 18 points, or 0.37%.
The U.S. economy created only 160,000 nonfarm payrolls (NFP) in April, missing consensus estimates for 202,000 new job contracts and causing concern over the state of the labor market.
Experts were split on the reading of the data as some pointed to the stronger levels of wage growth.
Decidedly, the consensus felt the report would be a negative for the Federal Reserve (Fed) that is concerned about its stable employment mandate, though some suggested that the weakness in contracts could just be a one-time blip on the radar.
Regardless, markets were quick to take a June rate hike off the table as the odds of a move dropped to just 6%, according to CME Group data, compared to 10% before the publication of the nonfarm payrolls and 20% a month ago.
Furthermore, the disappointing NFP convinced both Goldman Sachs and Barclays (LON:BARC) to push back rate hike expectations.
The American firm took June off the table and pushed its call for the first increase back to September.
The British bank also forecast September for the first move, but reduced its expectations for hikes this year to just one from the prior two.
The first scheduled Fed appearances will not arrive until Monday with Chicago Fed chief Charles Evans set to participate in a panel at the International Financial Services Forum, while Minneapolis Fed president Neel Kashkari will give a speech to the Economic Club of Minnesota.
While volatility ensued after the publication of the data, the dollar managed to trim losses and hold near one-week highs against rivals.
At 15:35GMT, or 11:35AM ET, the U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was trading down 0.10% at 93.64.
In oil markets, crude shook off early losses of near 2% on reports that wildfires in Canada were spreading further in its oil sands production region, along with news of the closure of a Chevron (NYSE:CVX) platform off Nigeria due to a militant attack.
Traders would also gauge U.S. oil production later on Friday with the Baker Hughes’ U.S. rig count.
U.S. crude futures gained 1.92% to $45.17 a barrel by 15:36GMT, or 11:36AM ET, and Brent oil advanced 2.02% to $45.92.