- 7-Eleven owner restructures to fight takeover
- Sri Lanka recovering faster than expected: World Bank
- Hong Kong, Shanghai rally as most markets track Wall St record
- Uniqlo owner reports record annual earnings
- Hong Kong, Shanghai rally as markets track Wall St record
- Indonesia biomass drive threatens key forests: report
- Mumbai mourns Indian industrialist Ratan Tata
- China opens $71 bn 'swap facility' to boost markets
- Asian markets track Wall St record as Hong Kong, Shanghai stabilise
- 'Denying my potential': women at Japan's top university call out gender imbalance
- China's central bank says opens up $70.6 bn in liquidity to boost market
- Youth facing unprecedented wave of violence, UN envoy warns
- 'A casino in every kitchen': Brazil's online gambling craze
- Nobel chemistry winner sees engineered proteins solving tough problems
- Discord seen as online home for renegades
- US forecasts severe solar storm starting Thursday
- Ratan Tata: Indian mogul who built a global powerhouse
- One dead as storm Kirk tears through Spain, Portugal, France
- Indian business titan Ratan Tata dead at 86
- Fed minutes highlight divisions over rate cut decision
- Steve McQueen debuts new WWII film at London festival
- Nobel winners hope protein work will spur 'incredible' breakthroughs
- What are proteins again? Nobel-winning chemistry explained
- AI steps into science limelight with Nobel wins
- Overshooting 1.5C risks 'irreversible' climate impact: study
- Demis Hassabis, from chess prodigy to Nobel-winning AI pioneer
- Global stocks diverge as Chinese shares tumble
- Time runs out in Florida to flee Hurricane Milton
- Chad issues warning ahead of more devastating floods
- Creator's death no bar to new 'Dragon Ball' products
- Chinese stocks tumble on lack of fresh stimulus
- Trio wins chemistry Nobel for protein design, prediction
- Braving war: Lebanon's 'badass' airline defies odds
- US weighs Google breakup in landmark trial
- Chinese stocks tumble on stimulus upset, Asia tracks Wall St higher
- 7-Eleven owner confirms new takeover offer from Couche-Tard
- A US climate scientist sees hurricane Helene's devastation firsthand
- Can carbon credits help close coal plants?
- Boeing suspends negotiations with striking workers
- 7-Eleven owner's shares spike on report of new buyout offer
- Your 'local everything': what 7-Eleven buyout battle means for Japan
- AI-aided research, new materials eyed for Nobel Chemistry Prize
- The US economy is solid: Why are voters gloomy?
- Scientists sound AI alarm after winning physics Nobel
- Nobel-winning physicist 'unnerved' by AI technology he helped create
- Trump secretly sent Covid tests to Putin: Bob Woodward book
- Neural networks, machine learning? Nobel-winning AI science explained
- Boeing delivers 27 MAX jets in September despite strike
- Stock markets diverge as Hong Kong sinks, oil prices fall
- US trade gap narrowest in five months as imports slip
US jobs surge, tech concerns whiplash stocks and send dollar higher
A surge in hiring in the United States renewed worries about aggressive interest rate hikes on Friday, bolstering the dollar and whiplashing Wall Street stocks.
Meanwhile, disappointing earnings reports from Apple, Amazon, and Google owner Alphabet added to unease about the outlook for the crucial tech sector after torrid growth early in the pandemic.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq, which piled on more than three percent Thursday thanks to forecast-beating results from Facebook parent Meta, led major US indices lower, falling 1.6 percent.
Shares of Amazon and Google parent Alphabet both tumbled Friday, while Apple shook off early weakness and finished higher.
Data showing that after a five-month slowdown in hiring, the world's biggest economy added 517,000 jobs in January, may have dented hopes that the US Federal Reserve could slow interest rate hikes further or even reverse them later this year.
"The key takeaway from the report is that it has the market questioning its own conviction about the prospect of the Fed cutting rates before the end of the year, " said market analyst Patrick O'Hare at Briefing.com.
The dollar bounded higher after the data was released, and the yield on US government bonds climbed higher.
But the jobs figures and other recent data also helped relieve concerns about a recession.
In Europe, London's blue-chip FTSE 100 index on Friday soared to a record peak, lifted by the weak pound and record annual profits at oil major Shell.
"A Friday feeling of optimism has surged through markets, pushing the FTSE 100 to a record high after US jobs growth powered ahead, and investors shrugged off recession worries," said Hargreaves Lansdown analyst Susannah Streeter.
Frankfurt stocks ended the day lower but Paris finished with a gain.
In Asia, shares in Indian conglomerate Adani fell further.
Beleaguered Indian tycoon Gautam Adani on Friday denied that his rise to become Asia's richest man -- a title he has lost in a phenomenal stock rout this week -- was due to his connections with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Combined market capitalization in Adani's listed units has collapsed by about $120 billion -- or half their previous value -- since US short-seller Hindenburg Research, which makes money by betting on shares falling, released an explosive report last week.
It accused Adani of accounting fraud and artificially boosting its share prices, calling it a "brazen stock manipulation and accounting fraud scheme" and "the largest con in corporate history".
Critics say Adani's close relationship with Modi, who is also from Gujarat state, has helped him win business and avoid proper oversight.
Adani on Friday called the allegations "baseless".
- Key figures around 2140 GMT -
New York - Dow: DOWN 0.4 percent at 33,926.01 (close)
New York - S&P 500: DOWN 1.0 percent at 4,136.48 (close)
New York - Nasdaq: DOWN 1.6 percent at 12,006.95 (close)
London - FTSE 100: UP 1.0 percent at 7,901.80 (close)
Frankfurt - DAX: DOWN 0.2 percent at 15,476.73 (close)
Paris - CAC 40: UP 0.9 percent at 7,233.94 (close)
EURO STOXX 50: UP 0.4 percent at 4,257.98 (close)
Tokyo - Nikkei 225: UP 0.4 percent at 27,509.46 (close)
Hong Kong - Hang Seng Index: DOWN 1.4 percent at 21,660.47 (close)
Shanghai - Composite: DOWN 0.7 percent at 3,263.41 (close)
Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.0799 from $1.0918 on Thursday
Pound/dollar: DOWN at $1.2052 from $1.2225
Euro/pound: UP at 89.58 pence from 89.21 pence
Dollar/yen: UP at 132.00 yen from 128.62 yen
West Texas Intermediate: DOWN 3.3 percent at $73.23 per barrel
Brent North Sea crude: DOWN 2.7 percent at $79.94 per barrel
burs-jmb/tjj
O.Hansen--CPN