By Yasin Ebrahim

Investing.com – The Dow posted its sixth-weekly loss Friday, as a better-than-expected monthly jobs report kept fears about an inflation-led slowdown in the economy front and center at a time when expectations of more aggressive Federal Reserve policy tightening continue to heat up.  

The slipped 0.5%, or 21 points, the fell 0.5%, and the fell 1.4%.

The number of jobs created in April was 428,000, which exceeded consensus expectations for 391,000. However, the unemployment rate remained at 3.6%.

The month’s slowdown was at 0.3%. However, economists are still expecting wages to continue their upward trend in a labor shortage.  

“We still expect the unemployment rate to drop to 3% by year-end, and wage inflation to accelerate toward 6%, which in turn will put a floor under inflation around 3.5-4%,” Jefferies said in a note.

Inflation is expected to trend above the Fed’s 2% target for some time, exacerbating investor worries about the impact on the consumer, which makes up about two thirds of economic growth.

“Fed Chairman Powell was hopeful that he could derail inflation without a “significant” increase in unemployment,” Diane Swonk, chief economist at Grant Thornton, said in a note. “Hope is not the same as reality.”

As investors continue to place bets on Fed tightening, tech stocks continue to suffer from pressure, having suffered a tumble a day before.

Google’s parent Alphabet (NASDAQ) and Microsoft (NASDAQ), as well Amazon (NASDAQ), Meta (NASDAQ), fell more than 1%. Apple (NASDAQ) was the exception to the trend and traded above the flatline.

Materials also had a significant impact on the market, led Vulcan Materials NYSE: Corteva (NYSE) and Ball Corporation, (NYSE) with the latter falling by more than 6% after Wall Street negative commentary.

“We are downgraded BLL [Ball Corporation] to sector perform rating from an outperform given inflationary cost pressures in EMEA, the suspension of its Russian operations and weakness in Brazil,” RBC said as it cut its price target on the stock to $81 from $100.

Wearing Under Armour (NYSE:) plunged 23% in the meantime after reporting a surprise loss. The guidance was also lower than expected as supply-chain woes continue to hinder growth.

DraftKings (NASDAQ) dropped more than 8 percent after paring gains, even though the sports betting firm reported quarterly results which beat both top and bottom line.

As supply worries persist, oil prices rose and energy stocks fell, oil prices also dropped. The European Union amended its Russian embargo plans to give Hungary, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Slovakia more time for implementation. The EU is expected to reach a decision on its Russian oil embargo plan this weekend. 

Peloton Interactive (NASDAQ:) lost more than 7.7% after the Wall Street Journal reported that Peloton Interactive, a connected fitness equipment manufacturer, is seeking to sell between 15% and 20% of its stake in order to increase its capital.