Stock market today: Stocks notch worst weekly decline since March 2023 after August jobs report

US stocks declined sharply on Friday after a weaker-than-expected August jobs report set off fresh fears about a recession.

The S&P 500 closed out its worst week since March 2023, dropping about 4% in the week, while the Nasdaq 100 dropped nearly 6%.

The US economy added 142,000 jobs in August, below the average economist estimate of 164,000. The unemployment rate fell to 4.2% from 4.3%.

While the jobs report wasn’t as jarring as the July reading, which saw the unemployment rate unexpectedly jump, it affirmed the cooldown of the labor market and the need for the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates at its September 18 policy meeting.

New York Fed President John Williams said now is the time to cut rates in a speech on Friday.

“It is now appropriate to dial down the degree of restrictiveness in the stance of policy by reducing the target range for the federal funds rate,” Williams said.

The market expects a 25 basis point interest rate cut from the Fed later this month, according to the CME FedWatch Tool. It was see-sawing between 25 and 50-basis points earlier the day.

The August report decisively shows how the US job market has weakened in recent months, with the three-month moving average of monthly job gains dropping from just under 270,000 in March to just over 110,000 in August.

JPMorgan wrote following the report that the data points to the “waning vigor” of the labor market and should prompt a larger, 50 basis point cut from the Fed at its upcoming meeting.

But the stock market weakness in the past week is typical, according to Fundstrat’s Tom Lee, who believes that this decline is right on time based on weak September seasonality.

“Even if we are cautious about the next 8 weeks, to us, stocks are at the lower end of the range, and we see more upside than downside,” Lee told clients in a note on Friday.

Analysts at Ned Davis Research echoed the sentiment, noting that the September sell-off is ultimately a buying opportunity as the stock market approaches its best three-month stretch of the year,

Here’s where US indexes stood at the 4:00 p.m. closing bell on Friday:

• S&P 500: 5,408.42, down 1.73%
• Dow Jones Industrial Average: 40,345.41, down 1.01% (-410.34 points)
• Nasdaq composite: 16,690.83, down 2.55%

Here’s what else happened today:

• ‘Big Short’ investor Steve Eisman explains why he refuses to predict another financial crisis.
• Apple could unveil four upside surprises when it announces its iPhone 16 lineup next week, according to Goldman Sachs.
• Senator Elizabeth Warren backs the DOJ’s investigation into Nvidia antitrust allegations.
• The top 10 NFL football teams are worth a combined $78 billion, according to CNBC.

In commodities, bonds, and crypto:

• West Texas Intermediate crude oil decreased 1.55% to $68.08 a barrel. Brent crude, the international benchmark, fell 1.83% to $71.36 a barrel.
• Gold was down 0.82% to $2,522.20 an ounce.
• The 10-year Treasury yield was down one basis point to 3.719%.
• Bitcoin dropped 4.48% to $53,651.