US stocks dip despite solid jobs news

NEW YORK: US stocks were broadly lower Friday despite
better-than-expected official data showing that job creation surged and
the unemployment rate fell a fourth straight month in December.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 55.78 points (0.45 percent) to finish the session at 12,359.92.

The broad-based SandP 500 slipped 3.25 points (0.25 percent) to 1,277.81.

The tech-dominated Nasdaq Composite bucked the trend, finishing up 4.36 (0.16 percent) to 2,674.22.

The
Labour Department data on the jobs situation in December showed 200,000
net jobs created and the jobless rate falling to 8.5 percent from a
revised 8.7 percent in November.

The data of recent weeks "have
been signalling firmer labour market conditions, and now they're here,"
said Ian Shepherdson of High Frequency Economics.

"The gains are broad-based, with strength in construction, manufacturing, retail, leisure and education," he said.

Bank
of America fell back 2.1 percent after a big jump Thursday on rumours
that the government was preparing a plan to boost the housing market
that would aid banks weighed down by huge portfolios of bad mortgage
loans.

Alcoa fell 2.1 percent after its announcement late
Thursday that it would shutter a big chunk of its global smelting
capacity to pare costs as aluminium prices sag.

Netflix jumped
nearly nine percent after releasing figures showing a rise in use of its
streaming video service and amid ongoing speculation it could be bought
by a larger media company. -- Bloomberg

eu side need to stabilze