investors hurried to shed riskier holdings across the board.
The abrupt decline underscored how anxious investors are about high interest rates.
Although a robust jobs market is typically positive for the economy, it signals that the Fed is unlikely to cut borrowing costs soon.
David Doyle, head of economics at Macquarie Group, said Friday’s jobs report was potentially “too good”, especially against a backdrop of high inflation.
He noted that the numbers increase the odds that the Federal Reserve will raise rates this year, adding to the market sell‑off.
This forced investors who had been betting on rate cuts to quickly revise their expectations.
Nevertheless, Friday’s tumble did not spark a worldwide market panic. Instead, investors moved out of tech stocks, which critics have warned are overvalued and could collapse much like the early‑2000s dot‑com bubble.
Large investment funds withdrew capital from AI and microchip firms, whose shares have surged in recent years.
Rather than exit the market completely, investors shifted into traditionally safer sectors. Healthcare, utilities and consumer staples—including Kraft Heinz and Keurig Dr Pepper—gained as traders sought stability.
The steep decline highlights the growing fragility of big‑tech stocks.
With a small group of tech companies representing a sizable portion of the market, any change in sentiment can easily pull the broader market lower.
Reacting to the slide, US President Donald Trump criticized the negative response to Friday’s jobs report, saying “too much emphasis is placed on inflation”.
“I hope the market starts to learn that when you have good numbers the market should go up not down,” Trump added.
Tech and politics are set to dominate next week’s agenda. Trump has invited leading AI executives to the White House to discuss a proposal for the government to acquire public stakes in their companies.
Trump argued the plan would reshape public perception of the technology, letting ordinary Americans “benefit from the success of AI”.
