The Dow Jones finished close to the 29,000 point threshold, down 0.94% to 29,102.51 points.
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The New York Stock Exchange ended lower Friday despite a solid report on US employment, catching its breath after several sessions that led it to new records Thursday and waiting to learn more about the coronavirus.
Its flagship index, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, lost 0.94% to 29,102.51 points.
The highly technological Nasdaq fell 0.54% to 9,520.51 points and the S&P 500, which represents the 500 largest companies on Wall Street, also dropped 0.54% to finish 3 ‘ 327.71 points.
Over the week, however, the Dow Jones rose 3.00%, the Nasdaq 4.04% and the S&P 500 3.17%. The three of them closed at new levels on Thursday.
“The week has been pretty explosive and it’s not unusual for the indices to drop due to investors taking some profits,” said Art Hogan of National Holdings.
Market participants were also able, according to the expert, to be cautious “in case we hear bad news about the coronavirus over the weekend”.
The toll of the health crisis continued to worsen on Friday, with 31,161 people infected with the mainland of China, of whom 636 died.
In the rest of the world, more than 300 cases of contamination have been confirmed in some 30 states and territories, including two fatal (Hong Kong and the Philippines).
The economic impact of the new coronavirus remains unclear. In the United States, the results of companies and indicators published during the week gave the image of a rather healthy economy.
The labor market report confirmed this idea on Friday, as the US economy created more jobs than expected, particularly in the construction and healthcare sectors.
The unemployment rate increased by 0.1 point to 3.6%, but this is explained by the fact that more than 183,000 people re-entered the labor market.
Hourly workers wages rose 0.25% from the previous month, slightly less than analysts expected. Compared with January 2019, it rose 3.1%, a rate much higher than that of inflation (+ 2.3% in December according to the PCI index).
Overall, this report remains positive for the markets because job creation is “encouraging” and the rise in wages does not accelerate “not enough to raise fears of an imminent rise in interest rates”, underlines Patrick O ‘ Hare of Briefing.
On the bond market, the 10-year rate on the American debt fell, moving around 21:15 GMT at 1.580% against 1.642% Thursday at the close.
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