Stocks sink on weak jobs data and soaring oil prices
Stocks struggled after a big negative surprise from the February jobs report. Additionally, the Qatari energy minister warned of a potential spike in oil prices to $150 a barrel within weeks.
The S&P 500, Nasdaq 100, and Russell 2000 sank and oil prices continued to climb as the Qatari energy minister, Saad al-Kaabi, warned the war could “bring down the economies of the world,” with crude prices potentially soaring to $150 a barrel within two to three weeks if tankers cannot safely pass through the Strait of Hormuz, a key trade route carrying about one-fifth of the global oil and gas trade.
The February jobs report posted a big negative surprise as the US lost 92,000 jobs, whereas analysts had expected a gain of 55,000. The unemployment rate was 4.4%, higher than the consensus of 4.3%.
Bitcoin dropped below the $70,000 level, unable to maintain its midweek rally.
Stocks that moved higher:
Marvell Technology skyrocketed after the custom chip designer announced in yesterday’s Q4 earnings results that it was boosting its sales guidance for the next two years.
Shares of Boeing rose following a Bloomberg report that the company could be close to finalizing a deal to sell 500 planes to China.
Software stocks ServiceNow, Datadog, and Snowflake continued to gain amid geopolitical instability.
Samsara soared after the internet-connected sensor systems developer beat Q4 revenue expectations by more than 5%.
Stocks that moved lower:
Finance firms with private credit ties, such as Ares Management, Apollo Global Management, and KKR & Co., fell amid a report of BlackRock limiting withdrawals from a private credit fund.
Gap sank after missing Q4 earnings as storms, store closures, and tariffs weighed on profitability.
Delta Air Lines, Southwest Airlines, Allegiant, JetBlue, United Airlines, Frontier Airlines, and Alaska Air slumped as jet fuel refining margins surged to 20-year highs.
Oracle shed its ample gains after Bloomberg reported that the cloud giant and OpenAI jettisoned plans to expand a data center site in Texas that is a part of Project Stargate, citing people familiar with the matter.
