Wall Street slips as Costco weighs, jobs data disappoints

Wall Street was lower on Friday morning as declines in Costco and energy shares added to the dour mood set by a report that showed the first drop in U.S. jobs in seven years.

The Labor Department`s closely watched employment report showed nonfarm payrolls fell by 33,000 in September as Hurricanes Harvey and Irma left displaced workers temporarily unemployed and delayed hiring.

However, a bright spot was the better-than-expected rise in average wages, up 0.5 percent, compared with a 0.3 percent increase estimated by economists polled by Thomson Reuters.

The gain was the largest since December 2016, helping lift the dollar to a 12-week high.

"I think most people realized going in that the headline numbers would be distorted because of the storms, but the surprise was the average hourly earnings," said Win Thin, global head of emerging markets currency strategy, Brown Brothers Harriman in New York.

At 10:58 a.m. ET (1458 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 35.02 points, or 0.15 percent, at 22,740.37. The S&P 500 was down 7.54 points, or 0.29 percent, at 2,544.53. At these levels, the index will end an eight-day gaining streak.

The Nasdaq Composite was down 15.25 points, or 0.23 percent, at 6,570.11 after hitting its sixth-straight record high.

The S&P 500 had marked its sixth straight record closing high on Thursday, in large part due to gains in the technology index.

However, on Friday the index fell 0.2 percent, dragged down by losses in Apple and Microsoft.

Shares of Costco dropped to their lowest in nearly a month after the warehouse club retailer reported a fall in gross margins. The stock was the biggest drag on the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq.

Energy declined 0.9 percent as oil prices looked set to end a multi-week bull run amid a bout of profit taking and the return of oversupply worries.

Declining issues outnumbered advancers on the NYSE by 1,990 to 793. On the Nasdaq, 1,612 issues fell and 1,070.

(This article has not been edited by Zeebiz editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)