U.S. stocks traded lower this morning, with the Dow Jones falling more than 300 points on Friday following the release of jobs data for November.

Following the market opening Friday, the Dow traded down 0.88% to 34,091.66 while the NASDAQ fell 1.47% to 11,313.56. The S&P 500 also fell, dropping, 1.09% to 4,032.25.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Energy shares rose by 0.1% on Friday. Leading the sector was strength from Brooge Energy Limited (NASDAQ:BROG) and Petróleo Brasileiro S.A. - Petrobras (NYSE:PBR).

In trading on Friday, information technology shares fell by 2%.

Top Headline

The US economy unexpectedly added 263,000 jobs in November, following a revised 284,000 gain in October and also surpassing market estimates of 200,000.

The unemployment rate came in unchanged at 3.7% in November, while average hourly earnings increased by 0.6% to $32.82 in November.

Equities Trading UP

• Top Ships Inc. (NASDAQ:TOPS) shares shot up 40% to $5.07 after jumping 20% on Thursday.
• Shares of Ra Medical Systems, Inc. (NYSE:RMED) got a boost, shooting 27% to $4.02 after jumping 29% on Thursday. Ra Medical Systems, last month, posted a Q3 loss of $4.36 per share.
• Anavex Life Sciences Corp. (NASDAQ:AVXL) shares were also up, gaining 23% to $10.89 after the company announced the ANAVEX2-73 Phase 2B/3 study met primary and key secondary endpoints, showing a statistically significant reduction of clinical decline in study of patients with early Alzheimer's disease.

Equities Trading DOWN

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.7% to $81.77 while gold traded down 1% at $1,796.90.

Silver traded down 0.4% to $22.76 on Friday while copper fell 0.8% to $3.7880.

Euro zone

European shares were mostly lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.4%, London’s FTSE 100 slipped 0.2% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index fell 0.5%. The German DAX gained 0.5%, French CAC 40 fell 0.4% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 0.4%.

Producer prices in the Eurozone declined 2.9% from a month ago in October versus a 1.6% increase in the previous month. French government budget deficit widened to EUR 143.2 billion in January-October compared to EUR 171.6 billion in the year-ago period. Industrial production in France dropped by 2.6% from the earlier month in October.

The trade surplus in Germany narrowed to €5.3 billion in October from €12.5 billion in the year-ago period.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed lower on Friday, with the Japan’s Nikkei dropping 1.59% and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index falling 0.33%. China’s Shanghai Composite Index dropped 0.29%.

Retail sales in Australia dropped by 0.2% from a month ago to AUD 35.02 billion in October versus a growth of 0.6% in September.

Economics

The US economy unexpectedly added 263,000 jobs in November, following a revised 284,000 gain in October and also surpassing market estimates of 200,000. The unemployment rate came in unchanged at 3.7% in November, while average hourly earnings increased by 0.6% to $32.82 in November.

Check out this: Investor Sentiment Drops Ahead Of US Jobs Report

COVID-19 Update

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 100,743,390 cases with around 1,106,370 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 44,673,980 cases and 530,620 deaths, while France reported over 37,916,050 COVID-19 cases with 159,020 deaths. In total, there were at least 648,749,110 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,642,930 deaths.