Stocks fell deeper on Friday, with the S&P 500 recording its worst week since March 2023, as market participants reacted to a weaker-than-expected jobs report. The broader market index fell over 1.7% on the day and 4.3% for the week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average also dropped over 400 points, while the Nasdaq Composite lost over 2.5% to end the session more than 10% off its record close, entering correction territory.
Here's how the market settled to close out the week:
S&P 500 Index (NYSE: SPY): -1.73% or -94.99 points to 5,408.42
Dow Jones Industrial Average (NYSE: DIA): -1.01% or -410.34 points to 40,345.41
Nasdaq Composite Index (NASDAQ: QQQ): -2.55% or -436.83 points to 16,690.83
In Focus:
Private Payrolls rose at a less-than-expected pace in August, offering another sign that the labor market is softening and boosting support for the Federal Reserve to issue an interest rate cut at its policy meeting in a few weeks. Nonfarm payrolls increased by 142,000 last month, the Labor Department reported Friday, rising by 89,000 compared to July's print but below the 161,000 forecasted by Dow Jones. Still, the unemployment rate ticked lower to 4.2%, which was expected by analysts.
Moreover, the last two months were downwardly revised by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, with July's initial total being but by 25,000 to a new total of 89,000, while June's print was lowered by 61,000 to 118,000.
Following August's jobs report, New York Fed President John Williams called for interest rate cuts in remarks before the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.
"With the economy now in equipoise and inflation on path to 2 percent, it is now appropriate to dial down the degree of restrictiveness in the stance of policy by reducing the target range for the federal funds rate," Williams said.
Separately, Fed Governor Christopher Waller said Friday in prepared remarks for the Council on Foreign Relations in New York that he is "open-minded about the size and pace of cuts."
"Considering the achieved and continuing progress on inflation and moderation in the labor market, I believe the time has come to lower the target range for the federal funds rate at our upcoming meeting," Waller said, adding that "if the data suggests the need for larger cuts, then I will support that as well."
On the Earnings Front:
Broadcom (NASDAQ: AVGO) reported better-than-expected fiscal third-quarter earnings late Thursday, and forecasts for current-quarter revenue of $14 billion, coming in-line with the $14.04 billion on $1.36 earnings per share expected by analysts. CEO Hock Tan said in a statement that the semiconductor company expects to record $12 billion in sales related to AI chips and parts in fiscal 2024, an increase from the company's previous outlook of $11 billion.
Goldman Sachs analyst Toshiya Hari reiterated the firm's Buy rating on Broadcom following its earnings report, believing that the company's lackluster current-quarter guidance is more of a "hiccup" than a cause for concern.
"We envision a re-acceleration in the AI Semiconductor business coupled with a cyclical recovery in the non-AI revenue stream ... putting the company back on a beat and raise cadence," Hari wrote in a note to clients, quoted by CNBC.
In Single-Stock News:
Apple's (NASDAQ: AAPL) upcoming iPhone and series of artificial intelligence features that come with it couple help bolster growth of AI application development, TD Cowen analyst Krish Sankar wrote in a note Friday.
"While on-device gen AI inferencing first appeared on Android (NASDAQ: GOOG) (NASDAQ: GOOGL) and PC devices earlier this year, we believe Apple's software ecosystem can drive development of Gen AI apps faster than competitors," Sankar wrote. "Ultimately, we believe these Gen AI apps are key to increasing or enhancing end-user productivity -- the most important value proposition for consumers."