US stocks dip after jobs data, Trump TikTok crackdown

Wall Street stocks dipped early Friday after a solid July jobs report only partially blunted the latest escalation in US-China relations and as Washington talks on an emergency relief package dragged on. The US added 1.8 million jobs last month, fewer than in May and June as unemployment fell to 10.2 percent from 11.1 percent in the prior month, the Labor Department reported. Briefing.com analyst Patrick O'Hare characterized the data as "better than feared." About 10 minutes into trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average had lost 0.5 percent at 27,261.36. The broad-based S&P 500 shed 0.3 percent to 3,339.43, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite also lost 0.3 percent at 11,080.51. Markets continued to monitor talks on Capitol Hill, where Democrats and the White House remain far apart on a spending package to support the coronavirus-battered US economy. US President Donald Trump late Thursday announced sweeping restrictions against Chinese-owned social media giants TikTok and WeChat, his latest explosive move aimed at countering China's rising global tech power. Beijing slammed the move as "arbitrary political manipulation and suppression" and said it would come at the expense of American users and companies. Among individual companies, Uber Technologies slumped 4.7 percent as it reported a $5.2 billion quarterly loss amid the hit to the ride sharing company from COVID-19 shutdowns. Goldman Sachs slipped 0.3 percent as it disclosed it would restate second-quarter results following a settlement with the Malaysia government over the bank's role in the long-running 1MDB scandal. The move will reduce Goldman's second-quarter profits to $197 million from $2.25 billion. jmb/hs © Agence France-Presse

/AFP