Stock market today: Dow drops 600 on weak jobs data as a global sell-off whips back to Wall Street

NEW YORK — Stocks tumbled Friday on worries the U.S. economy could be cracking under the weight of high interest rates meant to whip inflation. The S&P 500 fell 1.8% Friday for its first back-to-back loss of at least 1% since April. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 1.5%, and the Nasdaq composite fell 2.4%. A report showing hiring by U.S. employers slowed last month by much more than expected sent fear through markets.

It was just a couple days ago that U.S. stock indexes jumped to their best day in months after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell gave the clearest indication yet that inflation has slowed enough for cuts to rates to begin in September. Traders are now betting on a nearly three-in-four chance that the Fed will cut its main interest rate by half a percentage point in September, according to data from CME Group. That's even though Powell said Wednesday that such a deep reduction is “not something we're thinking about right now.”

“Certainly today’s job data feeds the weakening economy narrative, but I believe the market is overreacting at this point and pricing too much in on rate cuts at this stage,” said Nate Thooft, senior portfolio manager at Manulife Investment Management. “Yes, the economy is weakening, but I am not convinced there is enough evidence that the data so far is a death knell for the economy.”

Amazon fell 9.2% after reporting weaker revenue for the latest quarter than expected. The retail and tech giant also gave a forecast for operating profit for the summer that fell short of analysts’ expectations. Helpfully for Wall Street, other areas of the stock market beaten down by high interest rates had been rebounding last month when tech stocks were regressing, particularly smaller companies. But they tumbled too Friday on worries that a fragile economy could undercut their profits.In the bond market, Treasury yields fell sharply as traders raised their expectations for how deeply the Federal Reserve would have to cut interest rates. The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 3.79% from 3.

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