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* Mild weather boosts U.S. job growth
* Uber rises after co targets profitability by end-2020
* Take-Two tumbles after revenue miss
* Indexes down: Dow 1.04%, S&P 0.66%, Nasdaq 0.7%
(Updates to mid afternoon)
By Lewis Krauskopf
Feb 7 (Reuters) - Wall Street pulled back from record levels
on Friday after a four-day rally as investors digested a report
showing U.S. job growth accelerated last month and braced for
the next developments involving the coronavirus spread out of
China.
Stocks were still poised for strong weekly gains with the
S&P 500 on pace for its biggest weekly percentage rise in eight
months and the Nasdaq set for its biggest weekly increase in
over a year.
"It's just a technical pullback based on the big run-up we
had this week," said Matt Maley, chief market strategist at
Miller Tabak.
“Ever since the coronavirus became a big deal, people have
pulled back a little bit on Friday because they didn't know what
was going to happen over the weekend,” Maley said.
The death toll in mainland China was above 630 as the
coronavirus epidemic roiled the world's second-largest economy.
The Labor Department's closely watched employment report
showed nonfarm payrolls increased by 225,000 jobs last month,
while economists polled by Reuters had forecast payrolls would
rise by 160,000 jobs. The report followed other encouraging U.S. economic reports
earlier in the week, but Maley said the data may not be as
important because they may not incorporate any impact from the
coronavirus.
"We just don't know the long-term effects of the
coronavirus," Maley said.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI fell 305.79 points,
or 1.04%, to 29,073.98, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 22.09 points, or
0.66%, to 3,323.69 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC dropped
66.55 points, or 0.7%, to 9,505.60.
Most S&P 500 sectors fell, with materials .SPLRCM and
technology .SPLRCT the weakest performers.
Key risks to the U.S. economy have receded, the Federal
Reserve said in its late monetary policy report to Congress, but
the Fed did note risk from the fallout from the coronavirus
outbreak. Fourth-quarter corporate reporting season is more than
halfway done and overall S&P 500 earnings are expected to have
climbed 2.3% in the period, according to IBES data from
Refinitiv.
In company news, Uber Technologies Inc UBER.N shares
climbed 8.5% after the ride-hailing company laid out an
ambitious plan to be profitable by the end of 2020. Take-Two Interactive Software Inc TTWO.O shares fell 11.1%
after the videogame publisher's adjusted revenue missed
estimates. Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a
2.03-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 2.46-to-1 ratio favored decliners.
The S&P 500 posted 34 new 52-week highs and 1 new lows; the
Nasdaq Composite recorded 71 new highs and 74 new lows.