US stocks slip after the December jobs report badly misses expectations

US stocks slip after the December jobs report badly misses expectations

US stocks extended their losses Friday after the missed expectations to become the worst month of job creation in the past 12 months. All indexes lost ground on the last trading day of the week, with high-growth tech stocks leading the downturn as Treasury yields gained. The yield rose to 1.751% from Wednesday's 1.732% rate. Bond yields move inversely to prices. Stocks were headed for a losing week to start 2022 after hiring faltered again in December 2021 as the Omicron variant fueled another wave of coronavirus cases and economic restrictions. The report was the worst since December 2020 when the country shed 306,000 payrolls. The US added last month, far lower than the 450,000 median forecast estimated by economists surveyed by Bloomberg. The print revealed that hiring slowed in the final weeks of 2021 as coronavirus case counts surged. November job growth was revised to 249,000 jobs from 210,000, according to the report. "Friday's weaker-than-expected jobs report may prompt the Federal Reserve to reconsider some of the hawkish proposals that were mentioned in Wednesday's minutes report, such as the balance sheet reduction measures," Jay Pestrichelli, CEO of investment firm ZEGA Financial, said in a note Friday. He added that