Live news from January 7: US jobs growth misses forecasts, UK vaccine advisory panel holds fire on second booster, Citi to fire most unvaccinated US employees by January end

Wall Street technology stocks fell and the 10-year US Treasury yield hit its highest level since January 2020 after a strong jobs report underscored expectations for the Federal Reserve’s first interest rate rise of the pandemic era.

The blue-chip S&P 500 share index fell 0.4 per cent on Friday. The information technology sub-index of the S&P 500 fell 1 per cent, taking its loss for the week to 4.7 per cent.

The technology-focused Nasdaq Composite closed 1 per cent lower, capping off a weekly loss of 4.5 per cent — its biggest weekly decline since February 2021.

Live news from January 7: US jobs growth misses forecasts, UK vaccine advisory panel holds fire on second booster, Citi to fire most unvaccinated US employees by January end

The US 10-year yield, a benchmark that underpins borrowing costs and equity valuations worldwide, rose to 1.77 per cent, up 0.04 percentage points on the day, as bond prices fell.

The moves came after the US labour department’s monthly non-farm payrolls report showed the unemployment rate dipped from 4.2 per cent in November to 3.9 per cent in December, lower than economists had forecast.

Read more on the day’s market moves here

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