3.9% Unemployment Can’t Keep Stocks Up

U.S. stocks fell Friday morning after the government’s monthly jobs report missed Wall Street expectations.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell more than 100 points shortly after the opening bell, as large industrial components like Boeing and Caterpillar weighed down the other blue-chip stocks.

The S&P 500 fell about 0.4 percent in early trading as a decline in interest rates pulled financial and banking stocks down; shares of J.P. Morgan fell 0.8 percent while Bank of America lost about 1 percent.

The Labor Department reported that the economy added 164,000 jobs in the month of April, lower than the 195,000 expected by economists polled by Reuters. Average hourly earnings growth also missed, rising only 0.15 percent against expectations of a 0.2 percent gain.

Despite the miss in the number of jobs added, the government said the unemployment rate fell to 3.9 percent, an 18-year low.

Despite a broader slip in equities, Apple jumped after longtime investor Warren Buffett revealed that he bought 75 million shares during the first quarter, which added to the conglomerate’s already massive stake in the tech giant, “brought down our cash position moderately.”

The early moves in U.S. stocks came as markets across the globe showed a mixed picture. On Thursday, U.S. stocks finished relatively mixed, after the Dow Jones industrial average erased a nearly 400-point loss during the session, on the back of strong earnings.

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