The three major indices of the New York Stock Exchange closed lower on the 1st (local time). This result indicated that the employment situation in the United States has significantly deteriorated.
On that day at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell by 542.40 points (-1.23%) to close at 43,588.58. The Standard & Poor's (S&P) 500 index closed down 101.38 points (-1.60%) at 6,238.01, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq index closed down 472.32 points (-2.24%) at 26,650.13.
According to the employment report released by the U.S. Department of Labor on that day, U.S. non-farm jobs increased by 73,000 in July compared to the previous month, falling short of the market experts' net job growth estimate of 100,000. The job growth for May and June was also revised down by a total of 258,000 compared to previous announcements. The new reciprocal tariff executive order signed by President Donald Trump the previous day raised concerns about the economic impact of tariffs and had a negative effect.
Investment sentiment worsened, leading to declines in large tech stocks. Amazon, the world's largest e-commerce company, saw its stock price plummet by 8.27% due to expectations of deteriorating third-quarter results following a reduction in its cloud segment's operating revenue. Meta Platforms (-3.05%), Apple (-2.50%), NVIDIA (-2.33%), Tesla (-1.84%), Microsoft (-1.74%), and Google (-1.51%) also fell by around 2%.
Large bank stocks, including Wells Fargo (-3.53%), Bank of America (-3.41%), and JP Morgan Chase (-2.32%), also fell amid concerns about economic slowdown.
Scott Ren, senior global market strategist at Wells Fargo Investment Institute, noted, "As major corporations reported mixed results, the stock market has been rallying. In this situation, we are witnessing extensive tariff implementation and disappointing employment reports that are worse than expected."
The deteriorating employment situation also increased volatility in the bond market. According to the electronic trading platform TradeWeb, the yield on the 2-year U.S. government bond, which is sensitive to monetary policy, fell sharply by 27 basis points (1 basis point = 0.01 percentage points) to 3.68% around the time of the New York stock market close. At the same time, the yield on the 10-year U.S. government bond decreased by 15 basis points to 4.21% compared to the previous day.
The value of the U.S. dollar also fell. The U.S. dollar index, which reflects the value of the dollar against six major currencies, was at 98.6, down 1.4% from the previous day.
International oil prices declined amid concerns about a recession resulting from the slowdown in employment and the outlook for increased production from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) Plus.
The volatility index (VIX) from the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), commonly referred to as the 'fear index', rose by 3.66 points to 20.38 on that day, marking the highest level since June.