Wall St. dives over 1 per cent as job data stokes fret of further Fed rate-hike

• Financial

On Thursday, all three key indices of Wall St. fell across the board with tech-heavy Nasdaq leading the decline as a barrage of upbeat job data released earlier in the day had stoked fears of further policy tightening from the US Fed.

In the matter of the fact, in the day’s steep downhill-dive in major key indices in the Wall Street was almost entirely catalysed by a raft of upbeat job data, which eventually turned investors to their tails over worries that the latest set of employment data in effect would encourage the US Fed policymakers to stay on their hawkish rate-hike path, as futures’ markets have been betting on a 50-bps (basis percentage point) rate-hike as early as by early-2023.

Earlier in the day, US ADP National Employment data had unveiled that the US private payrolls rose more-than-anticipated, while US Labour Department data had unenveloped that the number of Americans filings for state unemployment benefits for the first time on their lives fell further to a seasonally adjusted 205,000 positions over the week that ended on December 31.

Amid such robust job market landscape, market participants remained fretted over further policy tightening measures from the US Fed, however, investors are eyeing the Friday’s Labour Department employment data, which happens to be more precise than ADP National Employment report.

Wall St. tumbles after upbeat job data, as rate-hike fear grows

Citing statistics, in the day’s Wall St. wind-down, the trade-sensitive Dow dwindled as much as 1.02 per cent to 32,930.08 and Wall Street bellwether S&P 500 shed 1.16 per cent to 3,808.10, while bearing the heaviest brunt, tech-heavy Nasdaq had been hit with a hefty whiplash of 1.47 per cent, wrapping up the session at 10,305.24.

Meanwhile, citing that a robust job market in the US would continue to prod the US Fed to continue their aggressive rate-hike cycle, a chief market strategist at Ameriprise in Tory Michigan, Anthony Saglimbene said, “It's very clear that good news on the labor market means bad news for the stock market. Data is showing that the labor market is very resilient”.