September's notorious volatility has once again gripped the markets as cooling jobs data spurred Wall Street into its worst week of the year.
In August, the U.S. economy added 142,000 jobs — a rebound from July's disappointing 89,000 figure but below expectations of 160,000 and significantly lower than the average pace of 202,000 over the past year.
While the unemployment rate edged down slightly from 4.3% to 4.2% as expected — and wage growth exceeded estimates — these figures did little to sway market sentiment. Labor data released during the week simply failed to meet expectations.
As a result, traders are now placing a higher probability on the Federal Reserve cutting interest rates by 50 basis points rather than 25 basis points in September.
Semiconductors were hit by several headwinds, including reports of a potential antitrust investigation into Nvidia Corp. (NASDAQ:NVDA) by the Department of Justice and disappointing guidance from major chipmaker Broadcom.
The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index, tracked by the iShares Semiconductor ETF (NYSE:SOXX), endured its worst week in over two years. Nvidia's shares extended their biweekly losses to over 20%.
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