The three major indexes on the New York stock market closed slightly lower amid skepticism over strong employment data.
On Feb. 11 (Eastern time), at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 66.74 points, or 0.13%, from the previous session to close at 50,121.40. The Standard & Poor's (S&P) 500 fell 0.34 points, or 0.00%, to 6,941.47, and the Nasdaq composite lost 36.01 points, or 0.16%, to end at 23,066.47.
In January, new jobs in the U.S. nonfarm institutional sector far exceeded expectations, serving as a boon for the market. The U.S. Department of Labor said nonfarm institutional sector jobs in January rose by 130,000 from the previous month, double the market forecast for a 70,000 increase. The unemployment rate came in at 4.3%, down 0.1 percentage point from the previous month.
On the news, the major stock indexes rose early in the session. The Nasdaq at one point extended its gains to as much as 0.94% intraday.
However, as downward revisions to nonfarm payrolls continued to repeat and other indicators still pointed to a slowdown in hiring, selling accelerated on concerns about lofty valuations.
The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index, made up of artificial intelligence (AI) and chip-related stocks, was also highly volatile. The Philly index, which had jumped as much as 2.94%, turned negative in just an hour amid selling, but bargain hunting flowed in and pushed gains back above 2%.
Sentiment was broadly weak among the mega-cap tech companies with market capitalizations above $1 trillion. Nvidia finished barely higher, but Microsoft and Alphabet fell more than 2%. Amazon also dropped 1.39%.