The stock market today: Stocks fall when jobs report disappointments, oil up, Bitcoin fall

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Shares fell on Friday after the job report in December fell short of expectations, but markets were still confident that the Federal Reserve would act fairly quickly to raise interest rates. The report was stronger than it looked on the surface.

Shortly after the opening

Dow Jones Industrial Average
was down 64 points, or 0.2%, after the index fell 170 points on Thursday to close at 36,236. The

S&P 500
fell 0.2 percent. The

Nasdaq Composite
was 0.3% lower.

The United States added 199,000 jobs in December, lacked estimates of 422,000 and fell from November’s result of 210,000. Unemployment fell to 3.9 percent. Markets had wanted to see people return to work at a rapid pace.

Any strength that markets can detect in the labor market could mean that the Fed will be forced to raise interest rates sooner rather than later, with more people making and spending money, which contributes to high inflation.

Even before the job report was released, the Fed said in its December minutes published on Wednesday that it is likely to raise interest rates in June, although markets expect the first increase in March. The Fed is also soon considering reducing the size of the balance sheet, which means selling bonds. This would push bond prices down and raise their interest rates.

And then came the job report for December, which was stronger than the headline result would suggest.

The work results from October and November were adjusted upwards by a total of 141,000. And the December report is no exception. “We remind investors that monthly job numbers will be revised in the coming months,” wrote Jay Pestrichelli, CEO of ZEGA Financial.

Wages in the private sector also continued to creep higher. Not only does this mean that households have more money to spend, but it also means that companies are more incentivized to raise prices, which contributes to inflation.

A signal that markets view the job report as one that could force the Fed to act quickly: the 2-year government bond, whose movements often try to predict how many rate hikes will come, rose to as high as 0.9% from 0.87 % before the report.

The bond market also signaled that inflation could be lasting. The 10-year government interest rate, which estimates long-term inflation, rose to 1.77%, a new peak in the pandemic.

In the stock market, technology stocks were hit the hardest. This is no surprise, as many fast-growing technology companies are investing heavily now to generate large profits well into the future – and higher long-term bond yields reduce the value of future profits.

Overseas, London

FTSE 100
was up 0.1%, and Hong Kongs

Hang the Bed Index
increased by 1.8% due to optimism among investors that China would prioritize a stable economy.

Commodity prices continued to rise as threats to production from unrest in Libya and Kazakhstan supported supply fears. West Texas Intermediate Oil futures rose 0.8% to over $ 80 a barrel.

Cryptocurrencies continued to lag behind, promoting losses from a decline this week.

Bitcoin,
the leading digital asset, was down 1.5% to below $ 42,500, according to data from CoinDesk, after starting the week around $ 47,000.

Ether
fell near 4%, remained above $ 3,200, and fell from over $ 3,800 on Monday.

Here are five stocks on the move Friday:

GameStop

(ticker: GME) shot up by 17% when the company’s plans to expand to digital assets took shape. The reseller creates a cryptocurrency partnership department while building an NFT marketplace, Barrons reported.

Delta Air Lines

(DAL) shares rose 1.9% after being upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Bank of America.

Honeywell International

The (HON) share rose 1.5% after being upgraded to Buy from Neutral at UBS.

McKesson

(MCK) shares rose 1.6% after being upgraded to Outperform from Neutral at Credit Suisse.

Kohls

(KSS) shares fell 4.2% after being downgraded to Sell from Neutral at UBS.

Write to Jack Denton at jack.denton@dowjones.com and Jacob Sonenshine at jacob.sonenshine@barrons.com