Wall Street Today: DJIA, S&P 500, Nasdaq Comp Fall on Strong Jobs Data and TSLA, LULU, SNOW Losses

The Dow-30, S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite all fell Friday as losses for Tesla, Lululemon, Snowflake, UiPath and other big caps combined with a strong U.S. jobs report that sparked rate-hike fears to sour investor sentiment.

The $Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI.US)$ shed 271.86 points (0.5%) to a 53,414.25 finish, while the $S&P 500 Index (.SPX.US)$ lost 29.11 ticks (0.4%) to 7,718.60 and the $Nasdaq Composite Index (.IXIC.US)$ gave up 77.07 points (0.3%) to 26,506.99.

Macro

The three indices snapped a two-session winning streak in part on big losses for select large stocks that fell on poorly received earnings or other company news.

For instance, $Lululemon Athletica (LULU.US)$ (down 17.4%), $UiPath (PATH.US)$ (off 16.6%), $Zscaler (ZS.US)$ (4.5% weaker) and $Planet Labs PBC (PL.US)$ (down 1.2%) all sank after reporting poorly received quarterly results and/or forward guidance Thursday evening.

Meanwhile, $Tesla (TSLA.US)$ fell 5.9% after its eagerly awaited self-driving Cybercab reveal Thursday night failed to impress investors.

The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration also opened an investigation Friday into safety issues related to the Cybercab, which lacks a steering wheel, pedals and other equipment standard on human-driven cars.

Separately, $Snowflake (SNOW.US)$ shed 5.4% after rallying 16.6% on Thursday on well-regarded earnings. Similarly, $Palantir (PLTR.US)$ gave back 4.5% after enjoying a 7.7% boost the day before.

Such losses more than offset gains for other big stocks, especially ones in the chip/computer-memory sector and other tech areas.

Winners included $SanDisk (SNDK.US)$ (up 11.9%), $Cerebras Systems (CBRS.US)$ (10.3% firmer), $Astera Labs (ALAB.US)$ (9.8% higher), $SK hynix (SKHY.US)$ (ahead 8.1%), $NEBIUS (NBIS.US)$ (which added 7.5%), $IREN Ltd (IREN.US)$ (7.3% better) and $Marvell Technology (MRVL.US)$ (7.1% stronger).

Other Big Techs to rise by lesser percentage amounts included $Micron Technology (MU.US)$ (up 6.1%), $CoreWeave (CRWV.US)$ (5.7% better), $Advanced Micro Devices (AMD.US)$ (up 4.7%), $Intel (INTC.US)$(4.5% firmer) and ORCL (which added 3.1%). Many such stocks rose Friday after falling significantly in recent days or weeks.

In economic news, a stronger-than-expected U.S. August jobs report increased odds that the Federal Reserve will order a stocks-unfriendly rate hike at its upcoming monetary-policy meeting.

The Labor Department reported before the bell that the American economy added 162,000 non-farm jobs last month – way above the 53,000 economists had expected.

Some fear the Fed will now boost rates in a bid to cool U.S. inflation without worrying about the potential harm that higher interest levels could bring to the American job market.

The CME FedWatch tool put the odds of the Fed ordering a 25-point hike its benchmark Federal Funds rate at 58.5% when the central bank next meets on Sept. 16. That's up from 49.4% just a day earlier.

Stock investors tend to dislike Fed hikes, which historically boost bond and money-market yields and draw investor dollars away from equities.

All U.S. Treasury yields except for the $US1-MonthGovernmentBondYield (US1M.BD)$ rose as of Friday afternoon in response to the jobs report.

Inflation fears and U.S. tech weakness also helped drive cryptocurrencies lower.

$Bitcoin (BTC.CC)$ shed 2.2% to $79,743.03 as of shortly before 5 p.m. New York time, while $Ethereum (ETH.CC)$ lost 2.4% to $2,453.54, $Solana (SOL.CC)$ gave up 3.3% to $101.78 and $Ripple (XRP.CC)$ fell 4.7% to $1.40.

Moo-vers

The "Magnificent Seven" stocks followed the broad market's lead and ended Friday mostly lower.

$Tesla (TSLA.US)$ led Mag-7 decliners with its aforementioned 5.9% decline, followed by $Apple (AAPL.US)$(off 2.5%), $Microsoft (MSFT.US)$ (2.1% lower), $Alphabet-A (GOOGL.US)$ (down 1.1%) and $Amazon (AMZN.US)$ (0.2% weaker).

Only $Meta Platforms (META.US)$ (up 1%) and $NVIDIA (NVDA.US)$ (0.8% better) bucked the trend and rose.

Elsewhere in markets, Friday's noteworthy percentage gainers included:

-- $Bloom Energy (BE.US)$, up 7.4%. The fuel-cell firm, which offers systems to power AI data centers, rose for a fourth day amid speculation that S&P Dow Jones Indices might announce later Friday that the stock is joining the $S&P 500 Index (.SPX.US)$. (S&P Dow Jones confirmed after the bell that BE would ascend to the S&P 500 on Sept. 21.) BE has also been on an upswing since hitting a July 29 near-term low, gaining 60.7% since then.

Conversely, Friday's significant percentage decliners included:

-- $Adobe (ADBE.US)$, down 6.7%. The software firm fell as investors panned news late Thursday that company veteran Anil Chakravarthy will take over from outgoing President and CEO Shantanu Narayen.

-- $Netflix (NFLX.US)$, 5.4% weaker. The streaming giant declined on word that it's boosting U.K. subscription prices, which could presumably cut into customer numbers.

-- Select crypto-related stocks, which pulled back from 10%+ gains they enjoyed Thursday on higher cryptocurrency prices. Cryptocurrencies pulled back on Friday, as did many crypto-related names. Friday's decliners included $Bitmine Immersion Technologies (BMNR.US)$ (down 5.6%), $Coinbase (COIN.US)$ (4.2% weaker), $Robinhood (HOOD.US)$ (off 2.1%), $Strategy (MSTR.US)$ (1.4% lower) and $Circle (CRCL.US)$ (off 1.1%).

Markets will be closed Monday for the U.S. Labor Day holiday, with trading set to resume on Tuesday.

Disclaimer: This presentation is for informational and educational use only and is not a recommendation or endorsement of any particular investment or investment strategy. Indexes are unmanaged and cannot be directly invested in. Past performance is no indication of future results. Investing involves risk and the potential to lose principal. Investment information provided in this content is general in nature, strictly for illustrative purposes, and may not be appropriate for all investors. It is provided without respect to individual investors' financial sophistication, financial situation, investment objectives, investing time horizon, or risk tolerance. You should consider the appropriateness of this information regarding your relevant personal circumstances before making any investment decisions. Past investment performance does not indicate or guarantee future success. Returns will vary, and all investments carry risks, including loss of principal.

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