US STOCKS-Wall St posts declines for first week of 2022; Nasdaq has worst week since Feb
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* U.S. nonfarm payrolls rise by 199,000 in December
* GameStop (GME) jumps after report of foray into NFT, crypto markets
* Indexes: Dow down 0.01%, S&P 500 down 0.4%, Nasdaq down 1% (Updates close with volume, prices, details)
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The Nasdaq posted its biggest weekly percentage fall since
Friday's Labor Department data showed the U.S. jobs market was at or near maximum employment even though employment rose far less than expected in December, when there were worker shortages.
On Wednesday, minutes released of the Fed's
"The investor takeaway is that the labor market continues to
be tight despite the headline miss," said
"Investors are concerned the Fed will be more aggressive than expected."
Consumer discretionary and and technology sectors led the way lower on the S&P 500 on Friday. Big tech companies have benefited from low interest rates.
On the flip side, the S&P 500 financials sector and
banking index extended recent gains and reached record
closing highs. The bank index rose 9.4% for the week,
registering its biggest weekly percentage gain since
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 4.81 points, or 0.01%, to 36,231.66, the S&P 500 lost 19.02 points, or 0.41%, to 4,677.03 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 144.96 points, or 0.96%, to 14,935.90.
For the week, the Dow fell 0.3%, the S&P 500 declined 1.9% and the Nasdaq dropped 4.5%.
Banks have risen with U.S. Treasury yields, with the U.S. benchmark 10-year yield soaring to a two-year high on Friday on the outlook for Fed rate hikes.
"The sentiment has turned negative," said
Rising cases on the Omicron variant of the coronavirus also caused investor jitters this week.
Investors have been rotating out technology-heavy growth shares and into more value-oriented shares, which they think may do better in a high interest-rate environment.
The S&P 500 value index added 1% this week,
outperforming the S&P 500 growth index which fell 4.5%,
its biggest weekly percentage drop since
The S&P 500 energy sector gained sharply for the
week, rising 10.6% in its best week since
"Meme stock" GameStop Corp (GME) jumped 7.3% after the video game retailer said it is launching a division to develop a marketplace for nonfungible tokens and establish cryptocurrency partnerships.
Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 1.01-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.38-to-1 ratio favored decliners.
The S&P 500 posted 50 new 52-week highs and 1 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 83 new highs and 262 new lows.
Volume on U.S. exchanges was 10.21 billion shares, compared
with the roughly 10.4 billion average for the full session over
the last 20 trading days.
(Additional reporting by