Wall Street in Anemic Open to 2023 Amid Recession Warning, Pending US Jobs Report

© AP Photo / John MinchilloA U.S. flag waves outside the New York Stock Exchange, Monday, Jan. 24, 2022, in New York. Stocks are drifting between small gains and losses in the early going on Wall Street Tuesday, May 3, 2022 as investors await Wednesday's decision by the Federal Reserve on interest rates. The Fed is expected to raise its benchmark rate by twice the usual amount this week as it steps up its fight against inflation, which is at a four-decade high.
A U.S. flag waves outside the New York Stock Exchange, Monday, Jan. 24, 2022, in New York. Stocks are drifting between small gains and losses in the early going on Wall Street Tuesday, May 3, 2022 as investors await Wednesday's decision by the Federal Reserve on interest rates. The Fed is expected to raise its benchmark rate by twice the usual amount this week as it steps up its fight against inflation, which is at a four-decade high. - Sputnik International, 1920, 04.01.2023
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NEW YORK (Sputnik) - Wall Street got off to an anemic start in 2023 as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) reinforced fears of a global recession and investors fretted over what the US jobs report for December will bring later in the week.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average, which serves as Wall Street’s broadest equities indicator with stocks of 30 large US corporations, closed down 11 points, or 0.03%, at 33,136. The Dow finished 2022 down 9%.
The S&P 500 Index, which represents the top 500 US stocks, finished up 15 points, or 0.4%, at 3,824. It finished 2022 down 19%.
The Nasdaq Composite Index, which comprises marquee names in technology such as Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Google, settled down 80 points, or 0.8%, at 10,387. The Nasdaq ended 2022 down 33%.
US stocks stumbled after the IMF said the world’s three main growth centers - the United States, Europe and China - were all experiencing weaker activity as 2023 began, raising the stakes for a global economic slowdown.
"This could be a year in which global growth slows significantly and traders are questioning whether that will warrant monetary policy to be loosened later in 2023," Craig Erlam, analyst at online trading platform OANDA, said. "Central banks have pushed back strongly against the idea and I imagine the IMF would too at this point but we could see markets moving in that direction if the data doesn't continue to haunt us."
In China, particularly, manufacturing activity shrank for a fifth straight month in December, a private survey showed on Tuesday, as the country grappled with an unprecedented spike in coronavirus cases after it relaxed some restrictions intended to prevent the spread of the virus. The figures provide a snapshot of the challenges faced by Chinese manufacturers who now have to contend with surging infections after the country's abrupt zero-COVID policy U-turn in early December.
In the United States, this week’s greater focus will be on Friday’s US nonfarm payrolls report for December. The jobs report is the first top-tier release of 2023 before next week’s more important Consumer Price Index, or CPI, report.
The jobs report is critical as the Federal Reserve faces a dilemma on whether to keep up with monetary tightening to get inflation to its preferred level or let up on aggressive rate hikes to shield the economy from a slowdown. Higher inflation and rising interest rates have hit the housing sector - and could next hit the labor market, which has shown stupendous growth for the past two years, since the world came off the worst of pandemic. On the other hand, eight nonfarm payrolls reports have exceeded economists' estimates, so another positive surprise cannot be ruled out.
Economists polled by US media expect the December payrolls report to cite an increase of 200,000 jobs - lower than November’s growth of 263,000 - but still healthy by US labor market standards. Before the pandemic, American jobs grew by just under 200,000 a month.
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