US stocks drop after jobs report

The stock markets in the US dropped in the early trading after the data in the US showed economy added fewer jobs than expected in January.

At the time of writing, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) was down 77 points, or 0.50%. The S&P 500 was down 17 points or 0.90%, while the Nasdaq Composite was down 1.5%.

The Labor Department said the US added 151,000 jobs in January. This was well below the estimate of 190K. The unemployment rate surprisingly fell slightly to 4.9% last month. Meanwhile, the average weekly earnings bettered estimate by coming-in at 0.5% month-on-month.

Across the pond, the pan-European Euro Stoxx 600 index erased gains to trade largely unchanged. Earlier today, markets in Asia closed mostly lower ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday next week.

The stock markets in the US dropped in the early trading after the data in the US showed economy added fewer jobs than expected in January.

(Market News Provided by FXstreet)