NEW YORK: Wall Street stocks sagged early Friday after a solid US jobs report boosted the already-high odds of another Federal Reserve interest hike, adding to worries about tightening monetary policy.
About 20 minutes into trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average had fallen 0.9 percent to 25,949.25.
The broad-based S&P 500 dropped 0.8 percent to 2,799.00, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index tumbled 0.8 percent to 7,326.13.
The US economy added 200,000 jobs in January, with unemployment holding at 4.1 percent.
Equally important, hourly wages rose 0.3 percent from the prior month to $26.74, putting worker pay up 2.9 percent compared to January of last year, the largest 12-month gain since June 2009.
The yield on the 10-year US Treasury rose 2.834 percent following the report, a fresh multi-year high.
"Rising wages are a good thing for the economy, but what is good for the economy isn't always good for the stock market if it drives up rate-hike expectations," said Briefing.com analyst Patrick O'Hare.
Investors also responded negatively to the majority of earnings reports from US corporate behemoths.
ExxonMobil slumped 5.2 percent after reporting a huge increase in fourth-quarter profits due to one-time benefits from US tax reform. But earnings excluding tax reform translated to 88 cents, below the $1.04 expected by financial analysts.
Google-parent Alphabet fell 4.6 percent after reporting a $3 billion quarterly loss to set aside funds to pay taxes on repatriated profits.
Apple fell 2.1 percent after reporting a record $20 billion profit in the fourth quarter on higher revenues. However, the tech giant said iPhone sales in the quarter of 77.3 million were about a million fewer than the same period a year earlier.
An exception was Amazon, which jumped 3.5 percent after reporting quarterly profits more than doubled to $1.9 billion.
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