US stocks dip on weak April jobs growth

Wall Street stocks edged down early Friday after the Department of Labor reported the US economy added a lower-than-expected 160,000 jobs in April.

The much-anticipated monthly report put April's job gains at by far the weakest level of the year and also modestly downgraded estimates for jobs growth in the prior two months.

On the positive side, wage growth picked up pace to 2.5 percent year-on-year, a possible sign of continuing firming in the jobs market.

About 40 minutes into trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was at 17,657.70, down less than 0.1 percent.

The broad-based S&P 500 shed 0.1 percent at 2,049.00, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 0.1 percent to 4,708.76.

Analysts said the weak jobs figures dim the chances the Federal Reserve will lift interest rates anytime soon.

"The bottom line is this means we're not going to see a rate hike in June," said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at First Standard Financial.

Video game developer Activision Blizzard climbed 7.2 percent after reporting better-than-expected first-quarter earnings as monthly average user figures reached an all-time high of 55 million, up 10 percent from the year-ago period.

Other companies with big share-price moves after reporting earnings included: drugmaker Endo International, down 35.8 percent; cyberscurity company FireEye, down 17.6 percent; and online business-review company Yelp, up 18.9 percent.

Valeant Pharmaceuticals International dropped 5.8 percent after announcing it formed a new drug pricing committee to be led by new chief executive Joseph Papa. Papa said the move was needed to correct earlier mistakes with drug pricing. Valeant has been heavily criticized for excessive price increases.

Herbalife, which sells health supplements and weight-loss products, surged 11.5 percent as it announced it is in advanced stages of settling with the US Federal Trade Commission an investigation into the company's marketing practices.

Herbalife said it could be forced to pay $200 million in a settlement. Analysts welcomed the news of a possible resolution to the case.