Stocks End Lower After Upbeat Jobs Report

U.S. Market
Stocks were lower today after a better-than-expected jobs report.

The U.S. economy added 295,000 jobs in February, well above the 240,000 expected by economists. The unemployment rate fell to 5.5% from 5.7% due to people dropping out of the workforce. The report raised expectations that the Fed would raise short-term rates sooner rather than later.

The U.S. trade deficit shrank 8.4% to $41.8 billion in January from the previous month. Exports fell 2.9% in the month while imports were off 3.9%.

At market close the Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq were down 1.5%, 1.4% and 1.1% respectively.

Stocks on the Move
Shares of Staples (SPLS) were down 2.7% after the firm reported fourth-quarter results. The firm said it lost 41 cents a share in the quarter as management took a write-down on its international businesses. Excluding charges, the firm’s earnings were in line with expectations as total sales fell 3.7%.

The Fed announced late Thursday that all 31 banks subject to its stress test passed both the severely adverse and adverse stress-case scenarios. The results were as expected, and the Fed will now move to approving the bank’s capital plan for the year.