Stocks finished lower Friday, extending the prior session's sharp losses and closing out a wild week modestly lower.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended down 98 points, or 0.30%, to 32,899, while S&P 500 lost 0.57% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq fell 1.40%.
"U.S. stocks appear to be on a permanent rollercoaster ride as investors debate continued signs of a strong economy alongside rising rates," said Edward Moya, senior market analyst for the Americas with Oanda, "which remains a drag on higher valuation companies."
For Wall Street to remain fully confident in piling back into stocks, Moya said, "inflation needs to be showing signs it is easing and that is not happening yet."
The previous two sessions on Wall Street have seen the biggest swings for U.S. stocks in more than two years. The S&P 500 rose the most since April 2020 on Wednesday following a dovish take on the Federal Reserve's 50-basis point rate hike. However stocks fell the following day, Thursday, with the Dow plunging more than 1,000 points for its biggest single-day decline since October of 2020.
The Fed Governors will need to lean against the serious concern investors are also proving to have for the credibility of Fed Chairman Jerome Powell, who triggered Wednesday's rally in part by stressing that the central bank is not "actively considering" a 75 basis point rate hike in June.
The CME Group's FedWatch tool, however, suggests rate traders are placing a 91.5% probability on just such a move in six weeks' time.
That's pushed the U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major currencies -- including the yen, the euro, and the pound -- to a fresh 20-year high of 100.04 in overnight trading, while benchmark 10-year Treasury note yields are hovering at the highest levels in three-and-a-half years and were last seen trading at a fresh 2022 high of 3.134%.
Oil was also back on the march after hitting a five-week high Thursday following OPEC's decision to maintain its path for only modest output increases over the coming months as cartel members fret over slumping demand in China linked to its ongoing Covid crisis.
WTI futures for June delivery were marked $2.32 higher at $110.60 per barrel while Brent contracts for July added $2.23 to trade at $113.10 per barrel.
Last night's sell-off on Wall Street, which extended the S&P 500's year-to-date decline to around 13%, bled quickly into the Asia session, with the region-wide MSCI ex-Japan index falling 2.77%. European stocks fared only marginally better, with the Stoxx 600 slumping 1.5% by the close of trading in Frankfurt and Britain's FTSE 100 falling 1.2% in London.
The Bureau for Labor Statistics said 428,000 new jobs were created in April, with headline unemployment rate holding at post-pandemic low of 3.6%. The BLS noted that wages rose 0.3% on the month, and up 5.5% on the year to $31.75 per hour, a figure that will possibly ease concerns over the pace of wage inflation.
Boeing (BA) shares fell 1% after the world's biggest planemaker said it will relocate its corporate headquarters to the suburbs of Washington, D.C.
Zillow (ZG) shares slumped 4.3% after the online real estate platform forecast softer-than-expected near-term revenues amid a surge in residential mortgage rates that could trigger a broader slowdown in the housing market.
DoorDash (DASH) shares, meanwhile, fell 1.4% despite the food delivery specialists posting stronger-than-expected first quarter sales and issued a robust near-term outlook for customer orders and overall activity.
