NEW YORK - U.S. equity markets pushed back Friday against a dismal March jobs report showing the COVID-19 pandemic hit the U.S.
economy harder than expected. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell just 70 points, or 0.33 percent, in the opening minutes of trading despite unemployment near the worst of the Trump era.
The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.42 percent and 0.39 percent, respectively. RELATED: CoronavirusNOW.com, FOX launches national hub for COVID-19 news and updates The Labor Department said the U.S.
economy lost 701,000 nonfarm jobs in the month as the unemployment rate climbed to 4.4 percent. Wall Street economists surveyed by Refinitiv were anticipating a loss of 100,000 jobs and an unemployment rate of 3.8 percent.