(For a Reuters live blog on U.S., UK and European stock
markets, click or type LIVE/ in a news window.)*Nasdaq posts 5th straight weekly gain*U.S. reports blowout job data; unemployment lowest since
1969*Megapcap earnings reactions: Apple up; Amazon, Alphabet
slump*Ford Motor drops on downbeat outlook*Indexes down: Dow 0.38%, S&P 1.04%, Nasdaq 1.59%(Updates with further market data)Feb 3 (Reuters) - Major U.S. stock indexes ended lower
on Friday after surprisingly strong jobs data sparked concerns
about aggressive Federal Reserve action, while investors
digested a mixed bag of megacap company earnings reports.The S&P 500 still posted a gain for the week, which included
a string of major market events, and stood not far from
five-month highs. The Nasdaq tallied its fifth straight weekly
rise, its longest such streak since late 2021.U.S. job growth accelerated sharply in January, with nonfarm
payrolls surging by 517,000 jobs, well above an estimate of
185,000. The unemployment rate hit a more than 53-1/2-year low
of 3.4%.In another sign of economic strength, U.S. services industry
activity rebounded strongly in January.Investors have been balancing hopeful signs that the economy
could avoid a feared recession against concerns about how long
the Fed will keep interest rates high to rein in inflation. The
S&P 500 gained earlier this week after comments that were more
dovish than expected from Fed Chair Jerome Powell, who
acknowledged progress in the fight against inflation.The jobs report "was an incredible surprise and it raises a
lot of questions about what the Fed is going to do next,” said
Kristina Hooper, chief global market strategist at Invesco.
“What I think is causing some of the volatility is markets
trying to make sense of how the Fed will perceive this.”The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 127.93 points,
or 0.38%, to 33,926.01, the S&P 500 lost 43.28 points, or
1.04%, to 4,136.48 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped
193.86 points, or 1.59%, to 12,006.96.For the week, the S&P 500 rose 1.6%, the Dow slipped 0.15%,
and the Nasdaq gained 3.3%.Wall Street's main indexes have had a solid start to the
year as tech and other stocks that struggled in 2022 have
rebounded, fueled by hopes that the Fed's rate hikes would soon
end and the economy might be able to navigate a soft landing.“So many things were trading at bargain-basement prices
three, four months ago," said Eric Kuby, chief investment
officer at North Star Investment Management Corp. "That has gone
away... I think we are in a fair game now.”On Friday, investors were also digesting another heavy
batch of corporate results.Shares of Apple, the largest U.S. company by market
value, rose 2.4%. The company forecast that revenue would fall
for a second quarter in a row but that iPhone sales were likely
to improve as production had returned to normal in China.Shares of Amazon slumped 8.4% as the company said
operating profit could fall to zero in the current quarter as
savings from layoffs do not make up for the financial impact of
consumers and cloud customers clamping down on spending.Alphabet shares dropped 2.7% after the Google
parent posted fourth-quarter profit and sales short of Wall
Street expectations.In other corporate news, Ford Motor shares slid 7.6%
after the automaker predicted a difficult year ahead.Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a
2.82-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.66-to-1 ratio favored decliners.The S&P 500 posted 16 new 52-week highs and one new low; the
Nasdaq Composite recorded 127 new highs and 16 new lows.About 12.8 billion shares changed hands in U.S. exchanges,
compared with the 11.9 billion daily average over the last 20
sessions.
(Reporting by Lewis Krauskopf in New York, Shreyashi Sanyal and
Johann M Cherian; Additional reporting by Shubham Batra; Editing
by Sriraj Kalluvila, Maju Samuel and Cynthia Osterman)