Stocks Closed Sharply Lower

U.S. stocks tumbled more than 1% on Friday as traders worried a string of strong data on the labor market could prompt the Federal Reserve to hike interest rates sooner than expected. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 278.94 points, or 1.54%, to 18,056.78. The S&P 500 fell 29.78 points, or 1.42%, to 2,071.26 and lost 1.6% over the week. The Nasdaq Composite was down 55.44 points, or 1.11%, to 4,927.37 and recorded 0.7% loss over the week.

The economy added 295,000 new jobs in February, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, blasting past economists’ expectations of 240,000 new jobs.The unemployment rate fell to 5.5% from 5.7% in January, the lowest since May 2008, when the rate was 5.4%.

The U.S. Federal Reserve will likely begin raising policy rates in June or September following a stronger-than- expected report on U.S. jobs which showed the jobless rate falling to a 6-1/2 year low in February, a top bond manager at BlackRock said on Friday.

Consumer credit grew at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.2%, for a gain of $11.6 billion in January, the Federal Reserve said Friday.