US stocks fall as employment report suggests rate hike

US stocks fell on Friday despite a good employment report.

The S&P 500 fell 1.4 percent after the Labor Department reported that nonfarm payrolls increased 295,000 in February, helping to push the unemployment rate down to 5.5 percent, the lowest in almost seven years.

Nine stocks fell for every one that rose in the S&P 500 and all 10 main groups declined.

The employment report supports the notion that the Federal Reserve “will raise rates in the not-too-distant future”, Chad Morganlander, a money manager at Stifel, Nicolaus & Co., told Bloomberg. “That scotches the speculative fervor within the equity market.”