news/AMZN/2023.01.05/Wall St ends down; jobs data feeds fears of more Fed tightening.txt

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              Jan 5 (Reuters) - Wall Street's main indexes closed more
than 1% lower on Thursday as fresh evidence of a tight labor
market ate away at any hopes investors had that the Federal
Reserve could pause its rating hiking cycle anytime soon as it
keeps focused on inflation.Thursday's ADP National Employment report showed a
higher-than-expected rise in private employment in December.
Another report showed weekly jobless claims fell last week.On Wednesday, another data set showed a moderate fall in
U.S. job openings. While a strong labor market would usually be
welcomed as a sign of economic strength investors currently see
it as a reason for the Fed to keep interest rates high."It's very clear that good news on the labor market means
bad news for the stock market. Data is showing that the labor
market is very resilient," said Anthony Saglimbene, chief market
strategist at Ameriprise in Tory Michigan."As long as the labor market is resilient, the Federal
Reserve has to continue to tighten financial conditions to bring
inflation down," said that strategist who expects investors to
be keenly focused on wage inflation in Friday's jobs report.According to preliminary data, the S&P 500 lost 44.74
points, or 1.16%, to end at 3,808.23 points, while the Nasdaq
Composite lost 153.53 points, or 1.47%, to 10,305.23.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 339.18 points, or
1.02%, to 32,930.59.The indexes had pared losses earlier in the afternoon after
St. Louis Federal Reserve leader James Bullard said 2023 could
finally bring some welcome relief on the inflation front.While Saglimbene noted that Bullard's comments were not
surprising, his suggestion that rate hikes were starting to show
some signs of dampening inflation, provided some reassurance.In the previous session, Wall Street's main indexes erased
some of their gains after minutes from the Fed's December
meeting showed the central bank was laser-focused on fighting
inflation even as officials agreed to slow the pace of rate
hikes to limit risks to economic growth.Earlier Thursday both Kansas City Fed leader Esther George
and Atlanta President Raphael Bostic stressed that the central
bank's priority was to curb inflation through policy tightening.Traders see rates peaking at slightly above 5% in June.The more comprehensive non farm payrolls report due on
Friday, will be looked to for further clues on labor demand and
the rate hike trajectory.Among individual stocks, Tesla Inc sank after
December sales of its China-made electric vehicles fell to a
five-month low, while Amazon.com Inc also lost ground
after it announced increased layoff plans.Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc fell sharply after the
drugstore chain posted a quarterly loss on an opioid litigation
charge.Shares in Bed Bath & Beyond Inc plunged after the
home goods retailer  said it was exploring options, including
bankruptcy.
(Reporting by Sinéad Carew in New York, Shubham Batra, Bansari
Mayur Kamdar and Ankika Biswas in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun
Koyyur, Shounak Dasgupta and David Gregorio)