The Dow rose on Thursday while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite fell, as a weaker-than-expected June jobs report pushed investors to rethink the path of interest rates. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added roughly 0.3%, while the S&P 500 slipped 0.6% and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 1.4%.
The move came as Wall Street parsed the June nonfarm payrolls release, which showed the economy added 57,000 jobs, well below the 113,000 economists had expected. Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh urged Wall Street to look to data to help map out the path of interest rates, and this report gave traders a fresh clue.
The labor data also carried a twist. The unemployment rate came in at 4.2%, better than the 4.3% economists had forecast, even as hiring slowed sharply from the prior pace. That mix matters because a cooler jobs reading can support the case for the Federal Reserve to hold rates steady, while still leaving a hike in play later in the year.
The pressure did not stop at U.S. stocks. South Korean chipmakers helped drive a 7.9% plunge for the Kospi stock benchmark, with SK Hynix sinking over 14% and Samsung Electronics falling over 9% after Wednesday's chip sector-led selling had already dragged markets lower. The weakness in chips kept tech under strain and fed the broader caution that followed the payrolls release.
Markets were also weighing a separate source of relief in the background. Qatar said this week's US-Iran discussions were positive, and oil prices fell after those comments. For now, the jobs report has done what traders wanted most: it forced a faster read on rates, and it kept the next Federal Reserve move unsettled rather than settled.
