US stocks end week with sharp losses after jobs report disappoints

The S&P 500 plunged 1.8% on Friday after the US unemployment rate rose to its highest level in more than two years in July. The tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 dropped 2.4% and the Russell 2000 sank 3.5%, more than the rest of the market. Wall Street’s “fear gauge” — the VIX — exploded towards its highest level since March 2023.

In the bond market, yields stumbled amid worries of a cooling economy, as the benchmark 10-year Treasury yields hit 3.78%, their lowest level of the year. 

It was a tough day for chip stocks. The VanEck Semiconductor ETF was crushed with a 5.5 percent drop. Intel, whose stock shrunk 29 percent at one point on Friday, was the hardest hit amid the global chip stocks selloff. The likes of Nvidia, AMD and Broadcom were all down.

Consumer staples topped the S&P sector leaderboard, up 0.9% thanks to Clorox’s optimistic profit outlook. That stock was best performer in the S&P 500 on Friday, jumping 7.42%.

Amazon was down 8.8% due to a revenue miss and light guidance. Its core retail business took a hit in the latest quarter as consumers shifted to lower priced alternatives, but the profitable cloud business continued to grow.

Conversely, Apple, which also reported on Thursday, rose 0.7% today thanks to strong Mac and iPad sales as well as service revenue.