The intensifying conflict in the Middle East sparked worries about rising oil costs and inflation, while an unexpected drop in US employment heightened concerns about growth, causing stocks to have their worst weekly selloff since October.
The S&P 500 Index saw its biggest single-day decline in almost a month on Friday, falling 1.3%, and ending the week 2% lower. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 1%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 Index dropped 1.5%.
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The US-Israeli war against Iran sent oil futures skyrocketing to prices not seen since 2023, and the unexpected US Job losses in February raised expectations for Federal Reserve rate cuts, but this did little to allay investor concerns about economic weakness. As a result, US and European equity indexes ended a turbulent week with losses of more than 1% on Friday.
As markets processed the US government report indicating that nonfarm payrolls decreased by 92,000 jobs last month, in contrast to economists’ prediction of growth of 59,000 jobs, trading in currencies and US Treasuries was volatile.
The decline in February was in contrast to January’s downwardly revised increase of 126,000. From 4.3% in January, the jobless rate increased to 4.4%.
A week into the war he started alongside Israel, US President Donald Trump escalated his rhetoric by demanding Iran’s “unconditional surrender” while Israel launched further attacks on Iran and Lebanon and Iran launched missiles into Israel and Gulf states that house US military bases.
The stock market, which had been flat for the year prior to the bombing campaign starting a week ago, experienced a turbulent week before Friday’s decline.
However, concerns about the potential for disruptions in private finance and the disruptive potential of artificial intelligence had been growing. Even while the conflict has put these worries on hold, investors are nevertheless troubled by them.
(Edited by : JUVIRAJ ANCHIL)