US stock market opens lower despite strong job gains

By Ovunc Kutlu

ANKARA (AA) - US stock market opened lower on Friday despite strong job additions in January.

The Dow Jones industrial average was down 59 points, or 0.17%, to 35,052 at 9.37 a.m. EDT.

The S&P 500 fell 10 points, or 0.22%, to 4,467. The Nasdaq lost 17 points, or 0.13%, to 13,861.

The American economy added 467,000 jobs in January, well above the market estimate of 150,000, the Department of Labor announced earlier.

The strong figure suggests that labor market is in full recovery from the pandemic, despite the omicron variant, but that also created worries for investors that the Federal Reserve may increase interest rates four times this year, which could put stocks under pressure.

Amid worries, the VIX volatility index, known as the fear index, further rose 1.3% to 24.68.

The dollar index gained 0.2% to 95.58, and the yield on 10-year US Treasury notes jumped 4.4% to 1.907%.

Precious metals were up with gold adding 0.1% to $1,805 per ounce and silver rising 0.4% to $22.52.

Crude oil prices extended their gains with over a 2.5% increase. Brent crude was trading at $93.43 per barrel and US benchmark West Texas Intermediate was at $92.83.