The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended Friday’s trading session lower as a highly anticipated jobs report intensified the debate about the Federal Reserve ‘s decision to raise interest rates during their September meeting. The Dow posted a triple digit loss and capped its second worst week for the year which is being seen as a huge negative by traders and investors. It is imperative to state that the volatility in the US markets has spiked over the past few weeks and the equity indices have been witnessing massive sell-offs all amounting to triple digit losses. The lack of buying interest at higher levels is a huge cause for concern for traders and investors in the near term.
According to the report released by the US labour department, the US economy added 173,000 jobs which came in below expectations but it was the unemployment rate which dipped to 5.1 percent which was seen as a huge positive. Many analysts believe that with an unemployment rate at such lows, the Federal Reserve might be forced to hike interest rates during their September meeting and take its first steps towards normalization. It is imperative to state that interest rates in the US economy have remained near zero for close to 7 years. The dollar surged during the trading session which was seen as a huge negative for dollar denominated commodities like gold and crude.
Oil had another volatile session, giving up all gains from the early morning Asian trading session and closing near the lows of the sessions. All eyes would be on the Chinese economy which would be releasing a slew of economic reports over the next week which would help traders and investors to understand the extent of slowdown in the world’s second largest economy as it could impact the global growth trajectory.