New York, Mar 7: Oil shot to its highest price since 2023 after surging again Friday because of the Iran war, and a weak update on the US job market knocked stocks lower to cap Wall Street’s worst week since October.
The S&P 500 dropped 1.3 per cent after a report showed US employers cut more jobs last month than they created and after oil prices spiked above USD 90 per barrel. The combination of a weak economy and high inflation is a worst-case scenario for investors because the Federal Reserve has no good tool to fix both problems at the same time.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged as many as 945 points before finishing with a loss of 453, or 0.9 per cent, and the Nasdaq composite sank 1.6 per cent.
“You can’t sugarcoat this report,” according to Brian Jacobsen, chief economic strategist at Annex Wealth Management. “A negative payrolls number combined with a big jump in oil prices will have traders worrying about stagflation risks.”
