Stocks slump after murky jobs report, as markets swing

By STAN CHOE and ALEX VEIGA
AP Business Writers

Wall Street is slumping Friday following a mixed reading on U.S. jobs, one that investors said was tough to parse, in the market’s latest bout of dizzying trading. The S&P 500 was 1.6% lower after erasing an early gain. It’s coming off a jolting stretch where it swerved by at least 1.2% in five straight days, pounded by uncertainty about how the newest coronavirus variant and about when the Federal Reserve will halt its support for markets. Treasury yields fell, rose and then fell again as investors struggled to square what the jobs report means the Fed will do on interest rates.