Investing.com — The S&P 500 fell Tuesday as data showing surprise strength in the labor market, stoked further concerns about higher Federal Reserve interest rates, pushing Treasury yields to the highest levels in more than a decade.
The S&P 500 fell 1.5%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.5%, 493 points, Nasdaq fell 2%.
Demand for labor unexpectedly rose in September
The U.S. Labor Department's latest Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTs) report, a measure of labor demand, showed job openings in August unexpectedly increased by about 9.6 million, confounding expectations for drop to 8.8M.
The signs of a still tight labor market added to fears that the Fed may need to hike again this year, pushing the 10-year Treasury yield and 30-year Treasury yields to their highest levels since 2007 in anticipation of a higher for longer rates.
The fresh surge in the Treasury yields comes even as Atlantic Fed President Raphael Bostic said there wasn’t “urgency” for the Fed to raise rates again.
Tech, which staged a rebound a day earlier, was led lower by Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:META), with the latter coming under added pressure after media reports that it is mulling whether to charge a $14 monthly fee to users who want to access an ad-free version of Facebook or Instragram.
The moves comes as a European court ruling in July — stating that under the EU’s data protection rules, Meta must seek user consent first before showing personalized ads – threatens the tech giant’s advertising revenue, a major source of revenue.
The broader malaise in tech, meanwhile, continued to be dominated by an ongoing rise in Treasury yields, which makes growth sectors of the market less attractive.
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