Tech Shares Tumble To End Losing Week For US Stocks

The Nasdaq led Wall Street lower on Friday as stocks concluded a losing week on a downcast note following disappointing results from tech high-flyer DocuSign and lacklustre US jobs growth.

Investors shunned highly valued tech shares after DocuSign offered a disappointing outlook and signalled that demand for its e-signature business was ebbing after a strong run during the worst of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Shares of the company plunged more than 40 percent, while other tech names like Adobe and several chipmakers were also hammered.

"The growth stocks are driving the declines," said Briefing.com analyst Patrick O'Hare, who also cited lingering unease over the Omicron variant of Covid-19 and disappointment that Thursday's rally in equities was not extended.

The Nasdaq ended the day down 1.9 percent at 15,085.

The Dow Jones slipped 0.2 percent to 34,580, while the S&P 500 shed 0.8 percent to close the week 1.2 percent lower at 4,538.

Friday's much-anticipated jobs report showed the US economy added just 210,000 jobs, less than half the increase forecasters expected.

But analysts characterised the report as better than the headline figure, noting the unemployment rate dropped to 4.2 percent, a decline of four-tenths of a point from the prior month. The labour force participation rate also rose to its highest level since the pandemic.

"Looking past the disappointing headline print, the details of the November jobs report painted a more optimistic jobs picture," Oxford Economics said in a note. (AFP)