US stocks open lower on US job data

By Aysu Bicer

ANKARA (AA) - The US stocks fell as investors digest September's job data, which increased the expectations that the aggressive interest rate hikes would continue.

The US economy added 263,000 jobs in September, above the market estimate, while the unemployment rate unexpectedly decreased to 3.5%, the Labor Department announced.

The market expectation for nonfarm payrolls was a 250,000 hike in September.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average diminished 416 points, or 1.4%. The S&P 500 lost 1.8%, while the Nasdaq Composite down 2.5%.

Brent oil is being traded at $97.29 per barrel for a 3.1% increase at 18.20 p.m. local time (1520 GMT).

American benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI), trading at $91.27 per barrel at the same time, saw a 3.19% rise.

Earlier this week, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and allies, known as OPEC+, agreed to cut daily oil production by 2 million barrels per day (bpd).

Following the decision, US officials said that US President Joe Biden "is disappointed" by OPEC+'s decision and announced the delivery of another 10 million barrels from the strategic petroleum reserve to the market next month.